


How to build a family

by Angelchexmex, Imaginary_Raine, Salllzy



Series: Journey through the Ark [1]
Category: ARK: Survival Evolved, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child Neglect, Depression, Father-Son Relationship, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Healing, Found Family, Gen, Healing, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Jedi Master Dooku, Melida/Daan, Near Death Experiences, Neglect, Obi-Wan Kenobi Gets a Hug, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Panic Attacks, References to the Jedi Council (Star Wars), Self Confidence Issues, Self-Doubt, Sexual Slavery, Slavery, Trigger Warnings, Wilderness Survival, butchering of animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 48,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelchexmex/pseuds/Angelchexmex, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imaginary_Raine/pseuds/Imaginary_Raine, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salllzy/pseuds/Salllzy
Summary: Obi-Wan had never expected things to get this bad when he had returned to the temple after his time on Melida/Daan leading the Young, he hadn't been naive he had known that there would be issues. But not like this, so when things went too far the Force intervened.It dropped Obi-Wan in the lap of the most over protective parent to ever walk the galaxy.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Original male character
Series: Journey through the Ark [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835422
Comments: 25
Kudos: 192





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has trigger warnings in, if you are uncomfortable with this please don't read. 
> 
> If you want to know who fed this bunny idea when there should be other things getting updated then look at SniperAnon, and their rather wonderful work called Jurassic Ark.
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/25164634#main
> 
> The link to the wiki will be posted, hopefully it will help to explain things that aren't explained in the story.
> 
> https://ark.gamepedia.com/ARK:_Survival_Evolved
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> Also take canon and throw it out of the window, almost everything has been changed.
> 
> Enjoy.

Obi-Wan laid in his bed, his entire body ached. The bandages that he had wrapped around his wrists and forearms were stained red with blood from his fresh wounds, however the pain was his only companion as of late. He tiredly sighed, once again he was unable to sleep. Since he had returned to the temple he had been mocked and ridiculed by Masters, Knights and Padawans alike. Snide remarks, dark looks and being pushed into doors, walls and he had even been held under water in the room of a Thousand Fountains, the other Padawans laughing as he struggled to breathe.

He knew that there would be issues with him returning to the Temple, he knew that people would take offence to it. Many Knights and Masters felt as if he was a badge of shame to Qui-Gon and that had only been days after he had become Qui-Gon's Padawan, the other Padawans had been green with envy.

However he hadn't expected it to get to this level, Obi-Wan honestly feared for his life from the people who were supposed to protect him.

Not even the council took notice or at least didn't care, and to Obi-Wan it felt as if they were actively encouraging it. It also felt as if Qui-Gon was willingly turning a blind eye to the bruises that he was getting outside of the training salle, there had been no way that Qui-Gon had missed the hand shaped bruises around his neck.

His eyes burned with tears that he wouldn’t let fall, he hadn't cried since he had been in the crèche. Crying just made everything much worse.

Scrubbing his face, Obi-Wan sat up, he wasn't going to get any sleep. Truth was he hadn't slept since Bandomeer, not since he had the collar around his neck. If he was lucky he would get two or three hours sleep every two or three days, another thing that people had willingly overlooked. Obi-Wan wondered why people found it so easy to overlook him, why was he so unwanted?

The unloveable and unwanted Padawan.

Obi-Wan had been ruthlessly squashing the urge to harm himself, he used to do it as an Initiate but had stopped when he had been picked as Qui-Gon's Padawan. He had been closely watched those first few weeks and he had been unable to do anything. Obi-Wan had been ten when he had found an old shaving razor, the curiosity and urge had just been beginning to form. He had run the blade across the palm of his hand and hissed in both shock and pain, then it felt good. For a brief moment none of his problems really mattered, so he did it again and again.

Obi-Wan thought that if he could bleed the bad out of him then, someone, anyone would love him.

Obi-Wan is acutely aware that he has problems, he can go days without eating, sleep is an issue by itself and he self harms. He knows that he has these issues, he knows that he needs help otherwise he will end up killing himself.

But maybe that would be better?

He wouldn't be such a failure or disappointment if he was dead, the Force wouldn't be wasted on him and maybe Qui-Gon would find a more worthy Padawan.

The urge to go under his bed and get his special box out was beginning to overwhelm him, he hadn't cut in a little over three years, yet here he was now on the verge of falling back into the habit. He didn't want to but the promise of relief from this pain was too much for him.

Suddenly a bright blue light filled his room, Obi-Wan squinted as the light got even brighter just as he went to shield his eyes with his hands. A deep rumbling voice filled his tiny room.

"Come along little one, it is time for you to heal."

The last thing that Obi-Wan saw was a blinding blue light.

The only evidence that Obi-Wan had been in the room at all was an unmade bed and bloodstains on the duvet.

* * *

Qui-Gon woke with the Force screaming at him that something was wrong, he scowled there was only one reason why something would be wrong.

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The most troublesome being that he had ever met.

Qui-Gon had debated and created peace treaties and trade agreements with a third of the galaxy, however he hadn't met anyone that could get into trouble simply by breathing. With a sigh Qui-Gon made his way to Obi-Wan's room, only for him to pause.

He couldn't feel Obi-Wan's Force signature, it was as if the teenager didn't exist.

His scowl got even deeper, he had warned Obi-Wan against shielding, Obi-Wan was already on probation for his shameful and disgusting display on Melida/Daan. 

Honestly what had Obi-Wan been thinking?

Qui-Gon paused, perhaps he was being too harsh on Obi-Wan, all the other wanted to do was help people and while it was an admirable goal and one that Qui-Gon wholly and fully supported and understood Obi-Wan's desire to help people but there was a time and a place.

Qui-Gon both regretted and didn't regret the fact that he had left Obi-Wan on a war torn planet, on one side Obi-Wan had learned a harsh and incredibly cruel lesson, one that Qui-Gon wished that Obi-Wan hadn't had to learn at such a young age. Yet there had been no other way for him to learn, Obi-Wan had been adamant about helping the people. 

It wasn't possible to save everyone.

It was a lesson that Qui-Gon had struggled to learn as well, Dooku had been a strict but fair Master. He would find Qui-Gon's limits then break them, Qui-Gon understood why. Dooku had lost a Padawan due to pirates, it had been a combination of bad timing, arrogance and a broken lightsaber. Dooku had watched as his Padawan got shot.

After that Dooku had swore that he would never allow another Padawan of his to become so arrogant.

Qui-Gon had become one of the best duelists in the entire order, Mace had beat him a fair few times. Sometimes he beat Mace, however Qui-Gon was very rarely able to beat his Master, something that Dooku took pride in. Qui-Gon shook his head trying to dispel the thoughts that were beginning to take up room in his mind, here and now he forcefully reminded himself. Qui-Gon stopped outside of Obi-Wan's room and knocked on the door.

"Padawan, it's time for breakfast." 

Qui-Gon waited for a few minutes, hoping that maybe for once his Padawan was acting like a normal teenager and had slept in. Qui-Gon was quite willing and content to give Obi-Wan time to wake up and get dressed, Obi-Wan rarely if ever acted his age more often than not Obi-Wan was far too serious for his age. Melida/Daan was an exception. Although it was fairly normal for Obi-Wan to have trouble sleeping after they came back from a mission, however when he couldn’t hear any movement from inside the room Qui-Gon got worried and opened the door.

He froze.

Obi-Wan's normally neat and tidy room was a mess, his bed was unmade, his clothes were scattered all over the floor. For a moment anger welled up inside of him, he had warned his Padawan about keeping his room tidy. Obi-Wan was going to be doing Katas until he passed out.

Clearly he had been too lenient on Obi-Wan if this was the state of his room.

Qui-Gon stalked further into the room only to freeze once again, there on the duvet was a bloodstain of a fairly decent size. Fear gripped Qui-Gon's heart as he suddenly realised that something was very wrong the bloodstain was dry and a sickly brown colour indicating that it had been there for some time, suddenly Qui-Gon felt a great deal of shame for thinking the worst of Obi-Wan, while they didn't have a deep and personal connection that many of the Master and Padawan pairs had, however Qui-Gon felt as if he knew enough about Obi-Wan to safely say that Obi-Wan kept his room neat and tidy as possible. Everything has its own place, yet the room was in chaos; it looked as if it had been ransacked.

Qui-Gon knew that he was set in his ways and he often clashed with people, he also knew that he often thought that he knew better than everyone else because the Force spoke to him more often than it did to others and yet he had jumped to an incorrect conclusion in regards to Obi-Wan. He had automatically assumed that Obi-Wan had left his room a mess in some sort of rebellion. It was what Xanatos had done as a Padawan.

Qui-Gon closed his eyes as the feeling of shame grew even more, once again he had compared Obi-Wan to Xanatos.

When would he learn?

Obi-Wan was not Xanatos and he never would be.

Qui-Gon looked at the dried blood and felt sick, either his Padawan had an injury which he had refused to go to the healers about or something far more sinister had happened. Something had happened to Obi-Wan, his Padawan was injured and possibly missing or maybe he had been kidnapped but then how did they get into the temple?

Qui-Gon wasn't sure what to think, all he knew that Obi-Wan was missing, there was dried blood on the bed and the room was a mess.

None of them were good signs.

Qui-Gon wasn't quite sure what to do, did he go to the Council first? Or did he go to the healers?

Qui-Gon quickly made his way to the healers silently hoping that Obi-Wan had merely snuck out of the room early and had gotten injured from training, he could deal with that. That was the sort of thing that he should be dealing with, something that the majority of Jedi Masters dealt with. Even Dooku had scolded him a few times for sneaking out to the training salle.

Obi-Wan wasn't in the healing halls.

Qui-Gon felt his panic begin to increase, there was only one option left, he had to go to the Council. As much as he didn't want to, he had no other choice now. For once he was grateful that the Council was in session, it saved him the trouble of hunting down each and every member. Qui-Gon had a rather tumultuous relationship with the Council, even Yoda who was his own Grandmaster. Although Yoda's lineage had a flair for dramatics and while normally he would make a joke about it, yet this time it was no laughing matter.

"Padawan."

The rumbling sound of his former Master, soothed him slightly. However it didn't change the fact that Obi-Wan was missing and possibly injured, if not worse.

"Master." Something must have shown on his face because soon he was being wrapped up in his former Master's arms.

"Tell me dear one." 

Any other time Qui-Gon would have pushed Dooku away, showing emotion was not the Jedi way or that was what many believed. The truth was Jedi felt emotions far deeper than their null counterparts, it was part of the reason why they were cautioned against holding onto them. After all a Jedi could quite easily kill someone if they got angry enough, but they weren't in public view, they were in the temple where he wouldn't be judged for this moment of weakness. After all, who better to understand him?

Than the other Jedi.

Qui-Gon swallowed a few times as he struggled to put into words just what had happened, how could he properly explain it?

Qui-Gon didn't know what had happened and now he was expected to explain it?

It wasn't possible, he didn't have all the answers. But he was a Jedi Master, he needed to release his emotions into the Force. For a moment it worked until he remembered why he was in the room with the Council.

"Obi-Wan is missing." The slight rasp in his voice and the panic is his Force signature, alerted the Council to how rattled he was.

"Missing Obi-Wan is?" The ancient eyes of the Grandmaster bore into Qui-Gon.

"Yes, at first I thought that perhaps he was shielding himself again. I intended to speak to him about it, to remind him that shielding himself to such an extent was unacceptable. Then when I knocked on his door and he did not answer I merely thought that he was sleeping in like a normal teenager, so I was willing to wait. Then when he didn't come out I went into his room, his room was a mess. I got upset, which is understandable considering that Obi-Wan always keeps his room neat and tidy." Qui-Gon had the distinct impression that he was rambling, something that he hadn't done since he had been a child.

A warm calloused finger pressed against his lips, dark eyes pinned him in place.

"Breathe."

Qui-Gon struggled for a moment until he forcefully reminded himself to think about the here and now, panicking wasn't going to help anyone. Taking a steadying breath Qui-Gon spoke again, his voice slightly more confident than before.

"Obi-Wan is missing and has been for an unknown unknown amount of time, as I said earlier my first thought was that perhaps he had merely slept in. Yet when I entered his room it was chaos, there was dried blood on his bed. I thought that perhaps he had snuck off to the training salle and gotten injured as a result."

Qui-Gon allowed them a moment to digest what he had just told them, before he continued.

"Imagine my shock when I found out that Obi-Wan wasn't in the healing halls and hadn't been in them since he had been in the crèche. Other than his mandatory injections and yearly check up, he never goes there."

Slowly it began to sink in, Obi-Wan was missing, his room was in a state of chaos and there was blood. It wasn't painting a pretty picture for any of them. The fact that Obi-Wan had been actively avoiding the healers was also something that they needed to address, but they could do that after they found him. When they found him, not if they found him.

"All of Obi-Wan's friends aren't in the temple and haven't been for some weeks, no one has seen him since yesterday." 

It pained him to admit that, however it was nothing compared to the knowledge that Obi-Wan was injured and missing. There was no trace of Obi-Wan anywhere.

"Go to Obi-Wan's room we must trace of who done this we may yet find." Yoda's ears were pinned back to his head, the only sign of his distress.

Qui-Gon bowed and left the Council chambers, what he wasn't expecting was to be joined by the Council and his former Master.

"My Grandpadawan is missing and you expect me to sit back?" Dooku's eyes glimmered darkly, warning anyone to tread carefully.

"Of course not Master."

It was suicidal to argue with Dooku when he was like this and Qui-Gon rather enjoyed living. Privately Qui-Gon was glad that he didn't have to deal with this by himself, Force knows what state Obi-Wan was in. Qui-Gon felt his barely contained panic spike as he thought about Obi-Wan, a hand found its way onto his shoulder. Qui-Gon looked at Mace who was looking at him with understanding, his Force signature brushed against his as Mace offered his silent support. Mace wasn't one for words, he believed that they could be twisted and warped to suit others needs.

Actions couldn't be.

Qui-Gon was grateful for the support that he was receiving, however he wished that it wasn't because Obi-Wan was missing. 

With far more confidence than he felt he made his way back to their room.

He refused to give up hope.

* * *

Obi-Wan felt floaty which was unusual in itself, these days all he felt was tired and depressed and sometimes he felt them both together. He hadn't always been like this, he had been happy once. Although that felt like a lifetime ago.

Sometimes Obi-Wan felt far older than what he actually was.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and blinked several times, the sun was harsh and blinding. The other thing that he noticed was that he was wet, he panicked. He flailed his arms and legs, he couldn't understand how he had gotten into the water.

"Help!" 

Salt water filled his mouth and his panic increased, for a moment or two he thought that he saw someone coming towards him. But that wasn't possible, he couldn't see any land. Just as he was about to go under the water again, he felt himself being pulled up and out of the water. Obi-Wan coughed as his body tried to get rid of the water that he had swallowed.

"Easy young one." The accent was strange and one that Obi-Wan hadn't heard before.

Obi-Wan coughed a few more times, his throat was sore and raw. Every breath he took was painful, his eyes burned and he was tired. Although considering what he had just gone through feeling tired was understandable, so Obi-Wan thought that it was perfectly acceptable that he was feeling tired.

"Who are you?" His throat throbbed as he spoke, Obi-Wan winced speaking was a terrible idea.

"Maximillion, but call me Max. It's shorter and easier." Max's eyes were a strange colour, but Obi-Wan liked the colour.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." It was only polite to return the gesture, after all Max didn't have to rescue him.

Obi-Wan found his attention drifting back towards Max's eye colour; he had seen a lot of different coloured eyes, but he hadn't seen violet and silver. They looked so pretty, like gems.

"Why thank you." Amusement danced in Max's voice as he looked at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan blushed, he couldn't believe that he had said that out loud. It was one thing to think about it, it was another thing to say it. But the amused smile on Max's face told him that the older man hadn't taken any offence to what had been said. 

"So how did you end up on Ark?" Obi-Wan could tell that Max was genuine about his question, the Force rang with his truth and sincerity.

"Ark?" Obi-Wan hoped that his question didn't come across as stupid.

Max looked at him with a wan smile on his face, his eyes were shadowed as he truly looked at Obi-Wan. 

"You are a fresh one." The pain and sympathy in his voice pulled at Obi-Wan.

"I'm sorry?" The confusion that Obi-Wan felt was visible on his face.

"How old are you?" There was a sharpness to Max's voice as he spoke, Obi-Wan flinched backwards.

"I'm 15 almost 16." Obi-Wan waited with baited breath for the explosion of anger that was sure to come, he could feel it in the Force.

"You are still a child!" The intensity of Max's anger caused Obi-Wan to move away from the older male.

Max looked at Obi-Wan, his face was a mask of sorrow as he looked at the teen, for a brief moment Obi-Wan thought that Max was going to hit him. Instead he was pulled into a hug.

"Oh little one, there is much I need to explain but once we are back on land." Obi-Wan was stiff and unsure in the hug.

Truthfully he had rarely been hugged and never had it been by a stranger before, yet for some reason the Force was calm. But Obi-Wan could hear the faint humming as Max pulled him further into the hug, Obi-Wan found that it felt nice. Slowly he relaxed into the hug, the steady beating of Max's heart soothed him.

"You had best get comfortable Obi-Wan, it's going to be some time before we arrive back on land."

Obi-Wan took the advice and settled down onto the warm floor of the raft, the gentle rocking of the water was far more soothing than what he had assumed it to be. Then humming filled the air as Max continued to steer the raft back towards land.

The last thing that Obi-Wan heard was Max's humming.

* * *

Maximillion wasn't an easy or kind man, he had been once. He had been laid back, kind and easy going, but Ark had changed him and not for the better in some ways. He spent a fair amount of time scowling these days, there were plenty of things that he had to do and there was only him to do the jobs that needed doing. He hadn't joined a Tribe and nor was he going to, he had seen the Tribe wars and he wasn't getting involved with it. That being said he did get lonely occasionally, his two hunting companions a black female Direwolf whom he had named Jade and his dark brown almost black male Sabertooth who he had named Onyx weren't able to talk to him. However they still kept him company, which was enough for him sometimes.

When he had taken his raft out onto the sea he had been expecting to catch some decent sized fish, enough to see him and his two companions for a couple of weeks.

He hadn't been expecting to rescue a teenager.

Of course he hadn't known just how old the teenager was, but he had guessed about 18 or 19, someone who was on the edge of adulthood. But Obi-Wan had shocked him, Max had been wrong about how old Obi-Wan was. With the harsh lines and tired set to Obi-Wan's shoulders Max had been so sure that Obi-Wan had been older than what he was.

Instead what he had gotten was a 15 almost 16 year old that had been aged long before his time, he had seen what stress would do to a person. Obi-Wan showed all the signs of living a highly stressful life, but that was what he could see with his own eyes.

What about the hidden wounds?

The mental and emotional ones?

Max knew nothing about Obi-Wan's mental and emotional state, and he wouldn't know until he got to know Obi-Wan better. Which meant time and trust, they were strangers to each other. Max knew that if he was going to do this then he would have to be in it for the long haul, not getting tired and bored and not quitting when things got either too tough or didn't go the way he wanted.

It wasn't a question of his dedication, but his morals.

Would he be able to live with himself if he turned Obi-Wan away?

Who would teach Obi-Wan how to survive?

Max knew what the most likely scenarios would be, he would get found by one of the Tribes and because of his pretty looks Obi-Wan would be used for one thing and one thing only.

Sex.

That was if he didn’t get eaten by one of the many predators that roamed the island, Max suppressed a full body shudder, there was nothing worse than being eaten alive.

He would know, he had died from it.

Ark was both a blessing and a curse depending on how one looked at it, Max had died a total of a 115 times. Each in a different way and each time he came back and learned from the mistakes that he had made, but the nightmares that he had gotten after each death had caused him to develop acute insomnia.

Max gently guided the raft back to shore as he continued to think about Obi-Wan, Ark may have hardened him slightly but it hadn't gotten rid of his want for a family. Nor had it completely squashed his caring nature, he had just become better at hiding it. Max sighed well it looked like he had already decided that he was going to help Obi-Wan, the nudging of the raft hitting the land brought him out of his thoughts.

Max dismounted from the raft and looked at the sleeping form of Obi-Wan, a smile pulled at his lips. Obi-Wan looked so young and innocent in his sleep, it was a startling difference to when he was awake. Max picked up Obi-Wan and frowned at how light the teen was, it was clear to Max that Obi-Wan had skipped a few meals. That was something that had to be stopped, Obi-Wan wouldn't be able to afford skipping meals now. With Obi-Wan safely in his arms Max let out a shrill whistle.

Jade and Onyx came running towards him, both of them were far bigger than their wild counterparts, it was a sign that they were well fed. Their coats gleamed in the sunlight as the two of them waited for him. Jade walked forwards and headbutted him, her head tilted to the left as she looked at the bundle in his arms.

Jade gave a wolf version if a huff only their human could go out hunting for prey and bring back a cub.

Still it wasn't the worst thing that he had brought back but she would admit that it was the first time that he had brought back a cub, while a cub would mean more hunting trips. Jade hoped that this new cub would bring back some of the life that had faded from his eyes. Jade had seen it in others that had lost their cubs.

Onyx chuffed and walked forwards, his big bulky frame dwarfed her lithe frame. Onyx laid on the ground near Max's feet, the demand was clear. Onyx would be able to carry the pair back to their home unlike Jade, who would be unable to carry the extra weight.

Once Max had Obi-Wan secure in his arms and he was confident that neither of them would fall off Onyx he dug his heels into Onyx's sides.

"Let's go home." 

Lumbering to his feet Onyx began to slowly move, giving Max a chance to alter his position before he began running. Reassurance flowed down their bond, Onyx chuffed Max had fallen off before during their early days together. Now he waited for Max to give the signal.

Onyx let loose a ear shattering roar as he began running towards their home, Jade howled as she kept pace with them. Max laughed at the two of them as they ran through the trees.

It looked like things were starting to look up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arriving back home and bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is turning into a monster, if this triggers you then please don't read. Skinning and gutting of a animal in this chapter.

The arrival to their home was anticlimactic, other than the highly shrill whistle that Max had let loose to signal his return, nothing had happened. The Raptors that patrolled the area around his home didn't come running as they did when they had found and killed something for intruding on their territory, Max took that as a good sign. It meant that no one had been foolish enough to try and enter his territory, which was far more common than what he liked.

Onyx came to a stop outside of his door, Max winced as he got off Onyx his legs protesting the movement as blood began to flow downwards once again. A screech caused him to look upwards, circling around the house brown feathers glowing gold in the sun was an Argentavis, the most recent addition to his ever growing menagerie.

With another screech it dived downwards at an alarming pace, briefly Max feared that it was going to crash into the ground until he spotted the carcass in its talons. Well that answered the question of where it had disappeared to this morning, Max made a mental note to figure out what gender it was, he couldn't name it if he didn't know its gender.

A dull thud filled the air as Max looked at the Ovis, that looked relatively unharmed if he hadn't just seen it getting dropped from the sky. The sheep-like animal was a favourite of many of the predators and trying to capture and tame them wasn't worth the hassle sometimes, that being said if he could capture and tame a few of them, then it would make feeding his tames far more easier.

However that was a problem for another day, right now he had other things to worry about, such as Obi-Wan. Max looked at the carcass and decided that it would be easier to deal with if he left it where it was, it was unhygienic leaving it on the ground where predators were roaming around. But they wouldn't take it, they all knew that they would get fed so there was no need for them to take it.

"Thank you."

The Argentavis looked at him, those piercing eyes had unnerved many people. But Max lived with Raptors, an Argentavis hunted alone, Raptors hunted in packs. Max had seen a single pack of Raptors take down a young Diplodocus, the pack had been meticulous about separating it from its parents before repeatedly attacking it, then retreating.

They had done that for over two hours until the young Diplodocus had been exhausted then they had gone in for the kill. Max had watched them from the safety of a tree, it had been extremely eye opening for him. 

Ironically enough the pack that had killed the Diplodocus was the same one that lived with him.

Somehow while lost in his thoughts and plans he had managed to open his door and put Obi-Wan on the bed, the gathered pelts and feather pillows were rather comfortable to sleep on in the winter months. Now that Obi-Wan was safe in his home Max could fully turn his attention to the other things that were occupying his head. Such as the Ovis and Raptors, both of which he needed to deal with. The Ovis carcass he needed to butcher and get into the smokehouse before the scent of blood attracted other predators, the Raptors had a tendency to get into mischief if he didn’t check on them.

With that in mind Max left the home, the fire in the fireplace was still burning away and wouldn't need topping up for a bit. Which was a good thing, once his home got cold that was it, it stayed cold. Hence the constant burning fire, the winter months were fast approaching and once the snow hit he would be stuck indoors. 

So there was that he needed to prepare for.

Max whistled as soon as he left the house, the only warning sign that he got was the strange sound of chittering before the Raptors burst out the bushes. The small pack stopped just before they got to him, Max looked at the youngest member of the pack and laughed. 

There hanging from his mouth was a Dodo, Max could feel the pride oozing off the young Raptor. 

The juvenile Raptor moved forwards with his prize hanging from his mouth.

"You are a right little hunter aren't you." Max rang his hand down his nose as a thought occurred to him.

"Hunter, that will be your name." The newly christened Hunter dropped the Dodo at his feet before headbutting him in the gut and running back towards his pack, the Alpha of the pack let out a sharp bark like sound and Hunter quickly quietened down.

Slowly the Alpha moved forwards, her eyes kept him pinned in place as she stopped in front of him. Max leaned forwards and as soon as their heads touched his mind was flooded by images, sounds and smells. As he assimilated what he was seeing he subconsciously began to stroke her nose, once the images had stopped he looked at her with fondness.

"Clever girl, you really are. You kept our home safe." He bumped heads with her, she chittered in happiness as affection flowed freely through their bond. 

"We have a new addition to our growing pack."

Suddenly all movement stopped, he watched as each member of the pack took in this new information. Then suddenly they pounced on him, chittering excitedly even his new addition seemed to be excited. As he endured the headbutting and affection he slowly opened the bond that he shared with them all. Now they were feeling what he felt, seeing what he saw and even what he smelt. The bond was a two way street and despite the fact that some people would call them dumb animals they were anything but. Max knew that the Raptors would get upset, simply for the fact that Obi-Wan's pack had left him.

That was a very big no-no to a Raptor.

He was proven correct when not even a minute later a sharp harsh barking sound filled the air and the Raptors disappeared into the trees. Max knew that they wouldn't be back anytime soon, they would patrol their territory to make sure that there were no intruders and then do it again just to keep an eye open for Obi-Wan's pack.

Max wasn't going to tell them that Obi-Wan's pack was most likely dead.

Still that was two problems out of the way, now he only had a million more to do. Max whistled at Jade who trotted over to him, Jax scratched behind her ears before gesturing at the small stone home.

"Guard Obi-Wan, I need to butcher the Ovis, make a run to the farm and get some more firewood before tonight." 

Jade looked towards the home before she trotted off, Max watched as she opened the door and then entered the house and closed the door behind her. Max smiled Jade would guard Obi-Wan with her life, she was the last line of defence. Max clicked his tongue as he walked towards his storage shed, he grabbed a pole and meat hook before wandering back out. He walked back towards the shed and grabbed a knife and an iron axe, and an obsidian pickaxe once he was sure that he had everything that he needed he made his way back towards the Ovis carcass.

He grabbed the pickaxe and swung it in the air a few times making sure that he had the swing correct before he swung the pickaxe into the ground, Max continued to repeat the action until he had a decent sized hole in the ground. Once he was sure that it was deep enough he grabbed the pole and placed it in the hole, Max then refilled the hole so that the pole wouldn't move. Max attached the meat hook to the pole before walking over to the Ovis and grabbing the carcass, Onyx laid on the grass and watched as their human began to bleed the animal.

Max hummed as he began to work, he needed to bleed the Ovis immediately, grabbing his knife he made a deep cut at the angle of the jaw which severed all the major blood vessels in the neck. As soon Max had made the cut he got ready to, hoist it off the floor by the hind legs and let it drain for a while.

While it was bleeding Max wandered over to his chopping block and began to grab a few cut logs, Max stood the log on the chopping block once he was sure that it was in the correct position he swung the axe downwards. Max continued to repeat the actions. Once he was sure that the Ovis had been properly bled out he moved back towards it to finish what he had started. Max looked at the genitalia and found that he was dealing with a female, that made the skinning process slightly easier.

Max knew that once he had the head it would need to be put to one side so that he could use the brains to tan the skin. Now that there was an extra person living with him, he was going to need all the hides that he could get. Not that he didn't use them before, he did for his bed. But now it looked like he needed to get out the sewing kit once again.

Max made a single cut up the belly, before branching just in front of the udder region. Loosening the skin as much as he was able to on the hind legs. Max then continued cutting right around and separating the skin from the leg at the hock. Before he finished skinning the hind legs by pulling down on the hide while fisting with the other hand. Peeling back the V shaped piece of skin formed where the original cut divided Max pulled it over, between the hind legs, and then to the back of the Ovis, until he came to the rectum. Hooking his finger around it, he pulled out a few inches of pipework, and tied it off with a piece of twine. Max then continued cutting the rectum away from the skin, he then dropped the tied off end down into the body of the animal. The next thing that he had to deal with was the tail, making sure that he was careful with his cut, Max cut it off the carcass, and hopefully it would have remained attached to the skin.

Hopefully being the key word.

Max sighed he was nearly done with the skinning process, from here it was fairly plain sailing to remove the skin from the rest of the body, in a similar fashion of pulling off a sweater, Max used his fist, and sometimes his knife, to loosen the skin as he pulled. When he was sure that he had drawn level with his original incision, he extended the cut downwards, all the way to the throat. Skinning the front legs in the same fashion as he had skinned the rear was slightly more difficult as he didn't have an extra set of hands to hold them steady, but as always he managed. Now it was just a matter of finishing skinning the length of the neck, until he reached its juncture of where the head and neck met.

The rest of the work was going to be easier and more straightforward now that the hard part was over. He needed to gut the animal now and that wasn't a pleasant job no matter how many times he did it, however he, like many animals on this island, ate meat. It was a good source of protein, hide, bone and when he could kill and butcher a Phiomia he could make sausage and bacon with it as well. He could also smoke it to make it last longer.

However no one had said that skinning and gutting an animal had to be pleasant.

Max took a deep breath before he began the process of gutting it, thankfully he had done it enough times to know what came next. Once he had sawn or rather hacked through the breastbone he then used his knife to open up the animal’s neck from breast to jaw, exposing the oesophagus and windpipe. Now this was going to be slightly tricky but not as bad as skinning the animal it was still going to require a lot of care Max needed to make sure that he did not puncture any of the innards, Max then opened the carcass from chest to crotch, and all the guts flopped out towards him. If he had a weaker stomach this would have made him sick.

Locating and removing the bladder required a gentle touch otherwise he would spill its contents onto the meat, and then he also pulled out the kidneys. Finding and taking out the liver was fairly easy as it was found to the right of centre, nestled against the diaphragm, Max put it to one side for supper he would use it along with the kidneys, after that he then carefully removed the gallbladder. Next, he needed to do a couple of sweeping semi-circular cuts with the knife which he then used to separate the diaphragm from the inside of the ribcage, whereupon the guts and the contents of the chest cavity simply dropped out onto the floor, remaining attached to the carcass only at the head. Quickly and efficiently he made a cut and the guts dropped completely to the floor.

Hacking off the head and finally the job is done!

All he needed to do now was let it mature for a few data in his cool room, making sure that he had a secure hold on it. Max then carried it to the cool room and hung it up with the other two that were already hanging in there. Once that was done Max made sure that the door was securely closed and locked, now all he had to do was wait for it to mature.

Onyx looked at the guts that were on the ground and whined at Max who was walking towards the house with both the liver and kidneys, Max merely nodded his head and Onyx happily dug into his treat. When he got closer to the door he could vaguely hear whimpering and moaning, quietly as he could he pushed open the door, Jade was sat next to the bed whinging as Obi-Wan twisted and moaned on the bed, his legs were tangled up in a direbear pelt. Max put the kidneys and liver into a bowl before quickly shoving it into the preserving bin, right now he had more important things to worry about.

Rinsing his hands in a bowl of water Max quickly dried them off and climbed onto the bed with Obi-Wan who was in the middle of a nightmare, he didn't touch Obi-Wan in case he made it worse but he did begin to speak to him. Max made sure to keep his voice level and he stayed as calm as possible.

"We need to get some decent weight on you, you are far too skinny. I think Jade weighs more than you." 

Jade huffed at the sound of her name and climbed up onto the bed with him and Obi-Wan, she curled around Obi-Wan as the teenager continued to shout out. Max wondered what was causing him to have such nightmares, as far as Max was concerned Obi-Wan should be worrying about teenage crushes and things along those lines.

Not screaming as if he was witnessing a war.

Onyx came bounding into the room, his face was still red with blood and Max knew that his fur would be sticky and starting to stick together. 

"Oh no you don't, you are having a bath."

Onyx took one look at him and bolted from the room, Max gave him a few seconds headstart, it was only fair after all. Jade had curled further around Obi-Wan, his dainty hands were tangled in her fur. Jade didn't look all that bothered about it.

"If he has another nightmare come and get me." 

Jade huffed and closed her eyes, a loud screech made her lift her head and stare at the door.

"I know, Onyx is winding one if the others up again. Honestly that cat, you would think that he was a cub with the way that he behaves." 

Grumbling to himself Max left the house.

Jade closed her eyes, finally she could get some sleep. Curling further around her charge she let the heat lull her into a light sleep.

* * *

Obi-Wan awoke to the sound of shouting however it wasn't being done in anger, the Force was calm. He allowed himself to relax into the bed, until he felt his pillow move, slowly he turned his head to the right and came face to face with something staring back at him. Obi-Wan wasn't sure what it was, he hadn't seen anything like it before. Whatever it was, it was intelligent. For a moment they just stared at each other until eventually it got off the bed, Obi-Wan found that he missed the extra heat that had been provided.

The cold draft from the open door had him grabbing hold of the furs on the bed to wrap around himself, his shivered as he tried to get warm again. He turned and watched as it came back into the building and stood on its hindlegs using its weight to force the door closed, Obi-Wan felt a tiny thrill of satisfaction. He had been right, it was intelligent. As quickly as the satisfaction had appeared, he violently squashed it, it was not the Jedi way.

But he wasn't at the temple anymore, so did it still count?

Did he still need to adhere to the temple teachings?

He had left the order and its teachings behind once before and he knew that it was possible to do so, but he had fought extremely hard to get accepted back into the temple. Obi-Wan wasn't sure if he wanted to throw it away a second time, would he even be given another chance?

Obi-Wan had begun to dig his nails into his wrists, a habit that he had developed through stress, it was also one that he needed to stop, he acknowledged. He had a lot of bad habits, ones that he was unsure if he would be able to break. But it wasn't as if anyone had cared about his bad habits before, and it wasn’t as if he had been wanted when he had come back to the temple. So did their teachings still matter?

Obi-Wan had no idea about his surroundings, the technology, animals, people and plants. He could easily be on a planet filled with cannibals, or maybe the plants were poisonous. There was a lot that he needed to learn, Obi-Wan looked around the room as he tried to make sense as to where he was. He was clearly in someone's home, like a flash of lighting the memory returned to him.

Drowning.

Max finding and rescuing him.

Falling asleep on the raft.

Obi-Wan blinked several times, so this must be Max's home and that meant that Obi-Wan had taken the man's bed from him. Slowly colour filled his cheeks he hadn't meant to fall asleep on the raft, his cheeks were still red and burning when the door opened again.

"Nice to see you finally awake, you have been asleep for a little over 8 hours." 

Obi-Wan looked at Max, the man was absolutely pitted. His face was barely visible due to what looked like mud on his face, his clothes were soaking wet. He looked as if he had gone a few rounds in a fight, and had come out of it as the loser.

"Ah." Not his most elegant answer that he had ever given.

Max waved his hand and water came flying off his fingers.

"I know I look frightful, I just need to dry off and get changed. There is still a lot to do." Max had started to strip as he spoke, his wet soggy clothing was dropped on the floor.

"Anything I can help with?" His response had been automatic but that didn't mean that he didn't mean it, he did.

"No, the only thing that you need to do is sit in this house and do absolutely nothing." Max had completely stripped off and was rummaging around in a chest, his wet clothing was in a pile.

Obi-Wan gaped as he looked at Max, he couldn't believe what he had just been told.

"But there must be something that I can do." Obi-Wan wasn't going to just sit here and do nothing!

Max leveled him a stern look, Obi-Wan found himself shrinking into the bed. Obi-Wan jumped as he felt something curl around him, calloused fingers tilted his head upwards.

"Obi-Wan you nearly drowned, not just that but you sent who knows how long in the sea without food and water. Not only that but you spent over 4 hours in the sun without water, your body needs to rest." To his shame he felt tears well up in his eyes, when was the last time that someone put him first?

"Hey now no need for tears, you'll spend today and tonight resting and tomorrow you can do some light work. But that is tomorrow, right now you need to rest." Max was stern but gentle as he explained his reasoning, to Obi-Wan it was a novel feeling 

Normally he was expected to just go along with what he had been told, most people expected him to know exactly what they wanted him to do. But he didn't know what to do with a full day to himself, something must have shown on his face because Max's face softened slightly.

"I know you want to do something to help, but pushing your body too far will cause you to collapse and then you will have to rest longer. Take some time for yourself, Jade will keep you company. If you need anything then you get her to get me, if you want to move then you send her to get me otherwise you will stay on this bed." 

Jade lifted her head from its position on Obi-Wan's lap, she huffed before putting her head back into its original position. Obi-Wan ran his fingers through her strangely soft fur, from its appearance Obi-Wan had assumed that it would be coarse.

"Scratch behind her ears, she loves that." Obi-Wan jumped slightly, he had forgotten that Max was still with him. Obi-Wan felt himself flush with embarrassment, something that he felt was going to be rather common with Max.

Max had changed his clothes and had got the majority of the mud off his face, Max scratched behind Jade's ears before patting her on her back.

"Keep him company."

This time Jade didn't bother to move her head, instead she merely rolled over. Obi-Wan watched as Max left the home, the door clicked closed behind him. Now that he was alone Obi-Wan was able to think, he also needed to meditate as well. But that was something that he could do when he felt better, Max had been right he was tired and it wasn't just in the physical sense either. However that didn't mean that he enjoyed being inactive, back in the temple he would have been scolded for it. 

However he wasn't at the temple.

So maybe taking a day for himself wouldn't be a bad thing, and it wasn’t as if he would be able to do anything. He could feel the Force in all of the plants and animals around him, but that didn't help him to identify them. All the living Force did was tell him that there were living beings and plants here, it didn't tell him if they were predators or if the plants were poisonous to him.

Which wasn’t all that helpful.

Obi-Wan was grateful that he had been found by Max, he had no idea if there were others or what sort of beings they were. There was a lot that he needed to learn, but did he have to start today?

What was wrong with him taking a day to heal?

Nothing.

The rules of the temple and of Qui-Gon no longer applied to him, just like they hadn't applied to him when he was on Melida/Daan leading a child army. But he had tried so hard to get accepted back into the temple, was he willing to throw it away again?

He had been bullied, belittled, attacked and neglected. That had been while he had been growing up in the crèche, things had only gotten far worse since he had left and returned back to the temple.

But they were his family.

Which meant that they had his best interests at heart, right?

But if they did then why had they attacked him?

Obi-Wan had all these questions and no answers for any of them, and it wasn’t as if he could ask one of them either. Even if he could, who would he ask?

It wasn't as if he had anyone who he could talk to, all of his friends hadn't spoken to him in months nearly a year and Obi-Wan got the distinct impression that they were actively avoiding him. It hurt him then and it still hurt him now, he had no idea what he had done for them to terminate their friendship. 

Yet dwelling on it wasn't going to help him any, all it would do was make him depressed, which was one of the last things that he needed in an unknown environment. He needed to keep his wits about him and he also needed to keep using the Force as well, he didn't want to lose any of the control that he had already gained. If he had been a Knight or a Master then he wouldn't be that worried about his control, but he wasn't. He had still been in training, he could do some of the lessons that he had learned in the crèche. Some of the lessons that Qui-Gon had taught him would also be helpful but for the most part he would be by himself, he didn't have a teacher to help him if he stumbled.

Obi-Wan had no doubt that Max would help him to the best of his ability, but he wouldn't be able to help fine tune his control. He wouldn't be able to help him learn the different signatures, or how to interact with the living Force. Obi-Wan had always been more skilled with the Unifying Force than the living Force, something that Qui-Gon had detested.

But Qui-Gon wasn't here now.

Instead it was just him and Max, Obi-Wan wasn't sure what he should do. Normally he would ask someone, but he couldn't do that all he could do was rely on the Force and all that was tell him was to trust Max.

Which wasn’t that helpful either.

It was alright to say trust him, but how much to trust him with?

How was Max going to react to Obi-Wan?

It wasn't as if he could walk upto Max and say. 'Hey I use the Force, please don't hate or kill me.' That was if Max even knew what the Force was to begin with, if he didn’t then that was another whole explanation. One that he didn't feel very qualified to give, it was times like this that Obi-Wan greatly hated having the Force. After all it wasn't as if the Force could die if it got drowned, Obi-Wan would. 

Maybe he was jaded in terms of how people reacted to getting told that someone they knew could connect with the Force, but it wasn't as if he didn’t have a good reason for it. His own parents had tried to drown him after they had found out that, if it hadn't been for Master Plo Koon turning up when he had done so, Obi-Wan would have died.

Perhaps it was this fear that was holding him back from telling Max, it wasn't as if he would be able to hide it for very long. Obi-Wan tried to talk to the Force but all he kept getting was to trust him, the whispers of love, protection and trust echoed through the Force. Obi-Wan wanted to believe it so very badly, but where did he even begin?

Obi-Wan took a steadying breath, he needed a clear head to think about this. 

* * *

Max grunted as he put the last of the fresh firewood into the firewood holder, it would take a few days for it to dry out but once it was he would be able to use it as fuel for the fire. Thankfully he already has some dry firewood stored away, but it was always a good idea to keep on top of it. With winter only two months out, he couldn't afford to fall behind on any of his jobs.

All he had left to do was harvest some food from the small farm that he had, he was mentally going through the list of things that he needed. Lettuce, tomatoes, rice, tea leaves, citronal, longrass, rockarrot and savoroot, he was going to double his normal harvest. Normally he would trade off some of the excess for other things, but he didn't know if it was possible at the moment. He needed to get some much needed weight onto Obi-Wan, the teen was far too skinny as far as he was concerned.

But he still had a few bags of flour that he could trade for extra furs if he needed to, there were only three Tribes that he would willingly interact with and even then it was only to trade. He also needed to check his jerky supply as well, he couldn't afford to run out of anything this close to winter. Max looked at the farm that he had, large crop plots filled his view. 

Most people would assume that he was paranoid with having this many large crop plots, but as he had learned the hard way, there was no such thing as too many in Ark. All it would take was one bad winter and his entire food supplies could end up depleted, but with his smokehouse, mill and several preservation bins he was able to store large quantities of food. Which reminded him, he needed to check on his smokehouse when he got back. The barely should have dried out by now, he should also check on the wheat as well. 

His biggest trade was alcohol more specifically Braggot mead, which was a pain in the arse to make as he needed to get honey which meant he had to find a beehive. Which meant he needed to find a Direbear, Max bit back a groan. He disliked looking for Direbears, not only were they hard to find preferring the redwood region, they were also very aggressive.

Which meant that if he did go hunting for one it would have to be a trip as it could take a week if not longer to find one.

Max checked each crop before grabbing a nearby basket and began to fill it up, savoroot was a hardy plant and could survive the harshest winters but plants like lettuce and tomatoes couldn't. He really needed to invest in some sort of greenhouse, then he would be able to grow crops all year round. But in order to do that he needed glass, which meant getting in contact with the craftsmen Tribe.

Thus time he did groan out loud.

"Ughhhh."

Who knew that adding an extra person could change things so dramatically, Max snorted, who was he trying to fool?

There was no one here but himself and he would admit that Obi-Wan was decent company, albeit he was shy and unsure of himself and far too eager to please but he was still growing. Max could easily see the strong, confident man that Obi-Wan would become.

He just needed some help getting there.

With that thought swirling in his mind, Max began to fill a second basket, humming as he worked under the burning sun.

* * *

After an hour of meditation Obi-Wan felt significantly better than what he did before he meditated, his mind was more clear and he was able to understand what the Force was telling him. But he was still wary, although he was no were near as bad as he was earlier. Which was a good thing as far as he was concerned, his emotions had been all over the place and he hadn't been able to think properly.

Now that he was calmer he was able to try and come up with a way to tell Max that he was able to use the Force, he knew that his reaction earlier stemmed from childhood trauma and it was one of the hardest things to heal. It also didn't help that he had years of rejection on top of it either, his fear had made him irrational. Now he understood his teachers better, fear made people do things that they wouldn't normally do.

No wonder they preached that fear led to the darkside.

Obi-Wan scratched Jade's head, the large animal rolled onto her back, her belly exposed as he continued to give her scratches.

"How do I tell him?" 

"The beginning is a good place to start." 

Obi-Wan jumped at the sound of Max's voice coming from the entrance, he hadn't heard the door opening. Obi-Wan swallowed before speaking.

"I have something that I need to tell you."

It was time to take a leap of faith and hope that the Force hadn't led him astray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it, please leave your thoughts below.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feels, bonding and hunting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember what was said about canon being thrown out of the window? 
> 
> It starts here, Obi-Wan's past has been altered. 
> 
> Trigger warnings as still applied to this story, if it makes you uncomfortable then don't read. There might be another update out soon as well.
> 
> As for the language they are both speaking in their native tongues Ark is translating it so that they both understand what each other is saying.
> 
> With that said we hope you enjoy it.

Obi-Wan looked at Max and hoped that he was making the correct choice.

"I'm a Force user, I was rescued by a Jedi Master by the name of Plo Koon who had felt my fear in the Force. My own parents were trying to drown me."

Obi-Wan paused, this was beyond painful and he was bearing his soul to a stranger. But the Force was urging him to do so and he had been taught to listen to the Force at all times.

"Are you telling me that your parents tried to kill you because you are different?" The fury in Max's voice was barely suppressed, his eyes were stormy as he looked at Obi-Wan.

"To be fair on my home planet it is seen as a great shame to have a Force sensitive child, most of them are burned alive. But my parents sought to give me a kinder death." He was twisting his fingers in the fur that covered his lap, Jade placed her head in his lap and whined.

"That still doesn't make it right, just because you are different doesn't mean that you should be killed for it."

Obi-Wan shrugged, he wasn't going to argue over something that had happened years ago. That chapter of his life was closed now, and he wasn't eager to revisit it anytime soon.

"I was brought to the temple as a toddler where I stayed until I was 12, where I then got sent to Bandomeer. I then spent nearly a year as a deep sea mining slave." 

The Force spiked with an all consuming rage, Obi-Wan noticed that Max's eyes had changed colour as well. Instead of their normal colours of violet and silver, they were a strange burning red colour. Flecks of yellow and orange streaked through the red, Obi-Wan was fascinated by the change, it looked like fire.

"Then what?" Max had climbed on the bed, the strange fire-like eyes were boring into him, Obi-Wan got the distinct impression that he needed to be careful with what he said next.

"I was found by a Jedi Master called Qui-Gon Jinn, who was fighting against his fallen apprentice called Xanatos. I offered to activate my explosive collar and blow myself up so that he could save the others."

Obi-Wan had to stop as the fire roared, the flames touched the roof. Obi-Wan moved backwards slightly, Max clearly wasn't fully human, nor was he a Force user like him. But he was still something, something that had the Force purring in satisfaction.

"You what?" There was a strange rumbling quality to Max's voice, one that in any other situation would be frightening. Instead it had a strange warmth filling his chest.

"I thought that if I was going to die, then at least my death would mean something or at least I would be able to help save others." Obi-Wan shrugged his shoulders and diverted his attention to Jade who was watching him with sorrowful eyes, it was as if she could understand what he was saying.

"You were 12 nearly 13, you should have been at your temple, not cast out like a piece of filth." 

Obi-Wan merely shook his head as he tried to explain.

"It's not like that, there aren't enough Jedi Knights and Masters to constantly take on a Padawan so those that don't get chosen get sent to the corps. Either way you serve the galaxy, like we have been trained to do."

Max snorted, a scowl pulled at his lips as the fire continued to violently flare up. Obi-Wan tentatively reached out to grab Max's scarred and calloused hands.

"It worked out in the end, I got my freedom and I got chosen to be a Padawan learner. Granted I was chosen slightly later than others but I still got picked, I was Qui-Gon's Padawan for a few months before I left the order to join a child army."

Obi-Wan paused, if he thought that it had been difficult before, it was nothing compared to now. Sometimes when he slept he could still hear the screams of the children that were dying, he could still smell the stench of burning flesh.

"Hey, eyes on me kiddo." Max had moved and he hadn't noticed, being too wrapped up in his own thoughts, that was careless of him.

"Obi-Wan eyes on me, you aren't there. You are here with me and Jade, you're in my home on the Island. That's it."

Obi-Wan felt light headed as if he wasn't getting enough oxygen, that was when it hit him, he was having a panic attack. He hadn't had one since he had left Melida/Daan and that had been months ago, so why now?

"There we go, nice deep breaths. Just listen to the sound of my voice, let it ground you." 

If this was any other situation then Obi-Wan knew that he would be mortified by his current behaviour but as it stood this wasn't a normal situation. There was nothing about the entire situation that was normal by any standards, Obi-Wan wasn't sure what would be classed as normal in this situation.

"There we go, easy does it."

Obi-Wan struggled to get control of his breathing, each breath felt like a battle. His hands were shaking as he fought to regain some sort of control over his body, it was an uphill battle just to get enough oxygen.

"Shhh, don't rush dear one. Slowly, in through your nose and out through your mouth. There we go." 

Obi-Wan tried to follow the advice that Max had given him, but for some reason he body was refusing to cooperate. His mind was saying one thing and his body was doing another, Obi-Wan wondered if it was making the situation worse.

"Shhh, deep breaths."

Idly he wondered what he had done to deserve such kindness, he hadn't been good at much. The teachers in the crèche tended to glimpse over his work before moving onto someone else. More often than not it was Bruck who they praised, it was Bruck who got the extra cookies for doing a good job. Never him.

"Oh Obi-Wan, I promise you that won't happen here. It will be you and me versus the world." 

Obi-Wan gave a watery laugh, tears continued to stream down his face.

"Don't lie, no one wants me." 

A harsh look appeared on Max's face and Obi-Wan winced, waiting for the strike that he knew was going to come.

"Obi-Wan look at me." 

Obi-Wan refused to look at the older man, but eventually Max gently grabbed hold of his chin and he didn't have an excuse not to look at the other.

"Whatever you were before doesn't matter, the past cannot be changed no matter how hard you want it to. What has happened to you is awful and tragic and no child or teenager should ever go through it, but I can't regret what has happened because it landed you here with me."

Obi-Wan found himself leaning into the unnatural warmth that Max was giving off, he felt safe, but consciously he knew that he shouldn't feel like he did. For some unknown reason the Force was pushing him towards Max, urging him to trust the other. The feelings of love, worry and concern pulsated from the Force itself. Obi-Wan didn't have much of an option other than to trust in the Force and hope that it didn't lead him astray.

"I am a lot different now to when I was younger, I was more laidback I smiled and laughed more but I also spent a number of years as a mercenary. But just because I did it back then doesn't mean that it isn't valid, your past is your past and while you cannot change it, you can accept it and allow it to help shape you." 

The strange fire-like eyes had gone back to their normal colours and Obi-Wan found that he missed the strange colours, he was no fool and knew that fire could burn and easily kill but he didn't feel that fear with Max. The panic that he had felt before had receded and despite feeling mentally and emotionally drained, he felt lighter in a way, it was as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders for the first time in his life.

It was liberating.

"You are going to lay down and get some sleep, you'll be feeling drained." With those words Max climbed off the bed and wrapped him up in the furs.

"Sleep Obi-Wan, we can continue this at a later time."

With that Max left him, the door gently clicked close but that didn't mean that he couldn’t feel the rage that was pouring off Max in waves. He could but for once it wasn't directed at him, instead it was for him. Max was furious at the things that he had suffered through, and while he couldn't do anything about it now it still upset him.

Obi-Wan wondered if this was what having a father felt like.

* * *

Max could feel his blood boiling inside his own body, he had known that Obi-Wan had gone through some shit, he had known that but he wouldn't have said child soldier. Nor would he have thought that the people who were supposed to be looking after him were neglectful and abusive, oh Obi-Wan hadn't said anything but the signs were there if a person knew how to spot them.

Obi-Wan had been expecting to get hit, as if it was normal for him to get struck.

If he ever met the people who had done such a thing?

Well they were going to have a nice long chat with each other.

Max released a deep breath that he had been holding, if he didn't get control soon he was going to end up causing problems. The last thing that he wanted to do was see if the Island had volcanic activity, that would be a bad thing. Not that the drastic change in scenery would bother him, but it might affect others. 

Max whistled and Onyx came running over, Max patted him on the head.

"Come on, we are going hunting." 

Onyx looked at their human, he could tell that he was angry. The way that his eyes shifted from prey to predator told him, Onyx shook his head only an idiot thought that their human was prey. Still going hunting this late during the day was risky, it would be getting dark soon. 

"Not far I promise, just a few Dodos hopefully we can catch them alive this time." 

Onyx chuffed and followed their human as he wandered through the trees, he didn't know what had caused their human to shift from his prey skin to his predator one, but he could guess.

His new cub.

Onyx kept his eye on their human as he readied his bow, the strange green arrow glinted in the sunlight. 

"See anything?" 

Onyx stalked forwards, his entire body was ready to pounce. But this time he wasn't going in for the kill, this time he was going to stun them so that their human could hit them with his strange awful smelling arrow.

"It's a good thing that we already have a pen set up." 

Onyx paused, his head tilted to the side as he heard something. For a moment he didn't move, he kept his eyes open for their prey. Suddenly a hand touched his head and Onyx looked at their human, he noticed that he had swapped his weapon. Black arrow glinted in the setting sun, both man and beast waited with baited breath.

A Parasaur broke through the bushes, wild and startled as it ran with a badly bleeding hindleg, it was weak and vulnerable which made it perfect prey. While it may not be the Dodos that they were after but if they could catch it and kill it before another predator found it, then he would be able to feed them all for a few days. The Raptor pack ate a few hundred pounds of meat every few days, and the Parasaur would go a long way in terms of feeding them.

"Go low, I'll go high."

Onyx crouched down on the ground and waited for the right moment to strike, Max drew back his bowstring and then let go, the arrow sailed through the air and hit the Parasaur directly in its right eye. It screeched as it tried to dislodge the arrow that was lodged in its eye, Onyx didn't give it a chance as he ran out of the bushes and tackled it to the ground. Max released another arrow this time it hit its throat, blood was beginning to rapidly pool around the downed Parasaur.

"Be at peace and thank you for providing." With that Max ran his knife across its throat ending its suffering, he hunted for food not for sport, there was no need for the animal to suffer.

"Think you can drag it back?"

Onyx chuffed as if he was offended, Max chuckled as he patted Onyx's flank.

"Of course you can, well there is your tea sorted for tonight." 

With the amount of carnivores that he had Max had to hunt every other day or sometimes he had to hunt twice a day, depending on weather and what prey was in the area. This time they had really lucked out with the Parasaur, this would hopefully see them for a few days. Which was another worry off his mind, he wasn't going to be worried about his Raptor pack hunting prey and not leaving anything for others.

Hunting was a delicate balance and he had seen how much a Raptor pack could eat, the last thing that he needed right now was for them to start hunting down all of the prey for food. Not with winter closing in, and especially not when he hadn't taught Obi-Wan how to hunt, where to hunt or when it was safe to do so. The pack would think that they were helping but in reality they would be making things worse, Obi-Wan didn't know any of the tricks that he knew, Obi-Wan didn't know what berries were safe to eat and what wasn't. He didn't know how to skin an animal or butcher it, he also needed to teach Obi-Wan how to tan hides as well.

It was a rather thrilling experience.

Max had never considered himself a teacher, he wasn't sure if he would be a good teacher but it wasn't as if he had a chance to do so before. So this was going to be a new experience for them both, one that he hoped would be a good experience and he wouldn't fuck it up. Which was a possibility, and one that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

"Come on then, I'll grab some vines to tie it with." 

With that Max wandered through the trees trying to find vines thick enough to hold the weight of the Parasaur, he trusted Onyx to keep an eye on their kill.

* * *

Onyx sat next to their kill, he wouldn't move until their human came back. Which hopefully wouldn't take too long as he was rather hungry, Onyx was about to take a bite out of the Parasaur until he heard squawking, he turned and looked at the Dodo that had wandered into his field of vision. With a chuff he lifted his giant paw and belted the Dodo hard enough to knock it out, there was one less thing for their human to do. Although why he wanted the pests was beyond any of them, it wasn't as if they did anything useful. All they did was lay eggs. Lots of them.

Onyx looked at the downed Dodo, he did like eggs and they were a nice treat but hard to get hold of. Stealing them from nests was always a risky business, more often than not he got caught. 

Another Dodo came wandering past him, if it was possible then he would have laughed, once again he raised his large paw and belted the Dodo. He watched as it fell to the floor out cold, there that was another one. But with the promise of a constant supply of eggs, he would gather as many of the pests that were needed.

Another one walked through the bushes, squawking as it went. Onyx looked at it, this was far too easy, although this idiocy was probably why they got killed and ate so often.

Still this was rather fun.

* * *

When Max had returned to Onyx he found that his hunting companion had somehow managed to capture 4 Dodos, which was strange considering that Onyx would much rather eat said Dodos than capture them alive.

"Well this certainly is a surprise." 

Onyx looked so proud of himself as he sat guard over his new found catch, Max dumped the vines that he had successfully collected and looked at Onyx.

"You just want the eggs don't you." 

That was the only reason that he could think that Onyx loved eggs, but the Sabertooth had a tendency to get caught when he tried to steal them from nests. The most recent one had the Sabertooth getting chased by a Triceratops, Max would have said that it had been funny except it wasn't. His home had been ruined, his farm destroyed and Onyx had nearly died. After that he had banned Onyx from trying to steal eggs, it was one thing for an Oviraptor to do it, it was another thing for a Sabertooth to do it.

"Well come on then, the sooner we get this home the less likely it will be for the Dodos to escape."

Max wrapped the vines around several large branches, it took several more attempts before Max tied the vines off once he was sure that they wouldn't move or come undone, the makeshift sledge was only temporary after all and he didn't need it coming apart on him. Once he was completely sure he began to slide it under the Parasaur carcass.

"There we go, give it a pull."

Onyx grabbed the loose vine and began to walk backwards, for a moment it looked as if it hadn't worked until slowly the makeshift sledge moved forwards. It was a slow moving process but it worked, hopefully it would last until they got home, making sure that the Dodos were secure. The pair of them began the long walk home.

* * *

Obi-Wan was starting to get worried, for the past hour or what he assumed was an hour the sun had begun to set. It was a strange process, instead of the normal colours that he had been expecting the sky burst to life in shades of purple and blue. Obi-Wan felt his breath catch as he watched from the little window, he hadn't seen anything like this before.

It was truly a unique experience and one that he was witnessing for the first time.

Obi-Wan knew that Max must have some skill in order to survive on this land, he knew that but he also knew that even the best hunter can easily get overwhelmed by numbers and Max had left his home upset. People did things that they wouldn't normally do when they were upset, for all he knew Max could be laid on the ground dying somewhere.

Jade lifted her head up from the bed, she had been his companion and he was grateful that she had been left with him. Although she couldn't talk to him, it was nice to feel not alone. Her head tilted to the side and Obi-Wan had noticed that she did that a lot when she was listening, suddenly she jumped off the bed, her tail wagging as she ran to the door, pulled on the rope dangling there and ran back to the bed.

She was careful as she pulled the furs off him, soon a wet nose was nudging him to move. When it became apparent that he wasn't moving quick enough she began to pull him off the bed, despite how sharp and large her teeth were she never once broke the skin on his legs.

"Alright, I'm moving!" 

Jade huffed, the cub was a little slow but they would fix that and their human would make sure that he would get enough food, and then they would teach him how to hunt and with them as his teachers he would be the best hunter ever. But that was later, right now their human had returned with a kill a big one, she could hear the way that it dragged along the floor as it was moved.

She barked trying to get the cub to move quicker, as she watched him move she noticed that he favoured one of his legs more than the other.

Well she wasn't going to allow that.

The silly cub was injured and trying to walk on it, no wonder their human was so protective over him. Keeping an eye on him, she moved behind him and bumped her head into the back of his legs. As he went to fall backwards she moved forwards, she felt his tiny hands grip her fur, it was clear to her that their human's cub former caretakers were terrible at their job. With him secure on her back she moved forwards, once she reached the ramp that led to the house she moved even slower. Taking extra care with her precious cargo she walked down the ramp.

"Jade." 

The gentle reprimand from Max didn't do anything to Jade if anything she seemed rather pleased with herself, Obi-Wan was stuck in the middle. Max had told him to stay in the house and not to move from the bed, yet Jade had dragged him from the bed.

"Well since you're already outside you may as well sit next to the fire." 

Jade huffed feeling pleased with herself, she knew that their human would see things her way, although it didn't happen all the time. Still it was nice to be out of the dry, stuffy air of the den, Jade wondered how the cub could stand it. But then again he didn't have much fur to keep him warm, yawning she laid down next to the freshly lit fire.

Obi-Wan carefully climbed off Jade's back, when he moved too far away she growled at him until he moved closer to her.

"She won't let you move until I sit next to you, I told her to guard you and she is."

Obi-Wan looked at Max who had returned with a bowl filled with some sort of meat and another was filled with strange vegetables, Obi-Wan watched as Jade moved towards the strange carcass that was laid on the ground, the other animals? Creatures?

Had already fed, he had seen the giant loth cat like animal before, but that wasn't what held his attention nor was it the group of strange lizard-like animals. It was the giant golden bird, the way its feathers shined in the setting sun was mesmerising, one minute they looked gold, then it would move and then they would look bronze in colour.

"Magnificent isn't it?" Obi-Wan numbly nodded his head as the giant bird looked at him.

"It's called an Argentavis, it is one of many aerial animals that dominate the sky. It's also one of the most aggressive as well, never get in-between it and its prey." 

The Argentavis took a step forward towards him and Obi-Wan felt fear curl it's cold fingers around him, it could very easily kill him with those talons alone. Max looked at it before he sharply whistled, suddenly the strange lizard-like animals had it surrounded.

For a moment nothing moved as Max and the Argentavis continued to stare at each other, it was clear that the Argentavis wasn't going to back down, the warning hiss that it got caused it to rethink its current strategy. Max whistled once again but this time it was more low and far shorter than the previous one, the animals quickly dispersed.

"Sorry about that, unfortunately Argentavis is a fairly new addition to the pack and it hasn't quite learned the rules yet."

Obi-Wan watched as it took flight, it was truly breathtaking. The way its powerful wings moved, how it glided through the air.

"It also doesn't have a name yet, partly because it's a stubborn shit and won't let me get close enough to find out its gender."

Obi-Wan continued to watch it until it disappeared in the fading sunlight.

"Come morning it will return, and most likely with a kill as an apology and with an extra mouth to feed that isn't a bad thing."

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to apologise, he didn't mean to take up so much of the older man's time and food. But as he went to go and speak he found a bowl of food pressed into his hands, the warmth from the wooden bowl seeped into his hands chasing away the chill in them.

"Obi-Wan if I had any issue with you being here, I could have easily left you in the sea or left you when we got to shore. But I didn't, the things that I'm complaining about I do it nearly all the time." 

There was no deceit in the Force and Max did have a very valid point, but Obi-Wan knew that slavery still exsisted and he knew that due to his looks he would be used for sex and that wasn't something that was appealing to him. Yet the Force wouldn't have brought him here to Max if the other man was going to harm him, Obi-Wan had trusted in the Force before and it hadn't led him astray then, but things were different now.

He was older, more jaded and had completely messed up every good thing in his life.

"None of that now, right now we are both strangers to each other despite the conversation that we had earlier. That being said I can offer you no guarantees for your safety, the Island is a dangerous place and one that takes a lot out of you." Max was staring into the fire as he spoke, Jade was curled around him. There were shadows in his eyes as he watched the flames dance.

"I may not be able to promise you wealth, glory and a fancy house. But I can offer you a home, food and some semi decent company. I can teach you how to survive in this world, that is what I can offer you." 

Obi-Wan was silent, his mind processing what he had just been told and while it didn't seem like a lot to Obi-Wan it sounded perfect.

"From the moment that I arrived at the crèche in the temple, I was bullied. The one place that I thought would be my home was turned into my prison instead, I haven't had a home before. I haven't even had a proper family before, logically I know that I shouldn't trust you. That I should stand up and leave despite how tired and injured I am, but I'm so tired of being left out in the cold, I'm tired of no one wanting me." Obi-Wan felt tears run down his cheeks as his deepest, darkest desire was suddenly on display. The Force let out a mournful cry as Obi-Wan continued to cry.

Suddenly Obi-Wan found himself pulled into a hard chest, scarred arms wrapped around him.

"Let it out kiddo, so long as you are with me I will look after you and after I have taught you. You decide to leave then I won't stop you, but until that happens you are stuck with me."

Obi-Wan sniffled a few times.

"And if I never want to leave?"

The arms tightened around him as Max responded.

"Then that is perfectly fine with me."

Obi-Wan began sobbing, clutching at the stranger who was doing more for him than either of his families had done, Obi-Wan didn't have anything to offer him. Yet he was still willing to take him in, to look after him. A pulse of affection, love and care filled the Force and Obi-Wan hiccupped as the feelings sunk into him, this was going to be a new experience for him.

But maybe, just maybe he could create a family with Max and his animals. 

After all family didn't have to be about blood, bonds were just as important as well. With time and some work they could be a family, Obi-Wan was looking forward to that moment.

* * *

The Force danced around Obi-Wan as its child decided to take a risk with the nature elemental, oh there was no doubt that the being was gruff and rude and had a nasty temper, but he would slaughter anyone who harmed his family. Obi-Wan needed someone who would put him first, someone who would listen to him, that would cherish him like the wonder that he was.

The Jedi had their chance and failed, so they had removed Obi-Wan from their care, it was time for someone else to do the job that they were supposed to.

Maximillion would take the time to teach Obi-Wan and under his guidance Obi-Wan would flourish, they had seen it. 

Now if only they could find a suitable partner for the pair of them, but that was later, right now Obi-Wan had much healing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking thetime to read it, comments below if you have any.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan learns new things, bonds with Max oh and there is Force shenanigans involved as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings still apply.
> 
> So here we go on the feels train, not just feels though.

Max awoke an hour before the sun was due to rise, his back ached and there was a terrible pain in his neck. Yawning he opened his eyes and blinked several times, curled around him was Obi-Wan, hands were clenched in his sleep shirt. At some point during the night, his arms had wrapped themselves around the teen. Obi-Wan's head was tucked under his chin, it was very domestic.

It caused a warm fuzzy feeling to blossom in his chest, it was all very surreal.

Still there were things that he needed to do, like empty his bladder for starters, food for another. He also knew that he needed to feed the motley crew before they started a mutiny, and by that he meant jumping on him while he was in bed. Which they wouldn't be able to do with Obi-Wan in the bed, the teen needed his sleep. Carefully he extracted himself from Obi-Wan's death grip, he hissed as his feet hit the cold stone.

Tucking the fur around Obi-Wan to make sure that the teen wouldn't catch cold, Max shuffled out of the house, yawning and scratching his chest. Bleary-eyed Max whistled, it took a few attempts but eventually he was successfully able to whistle.

"Breakfast."

What was left of the Parasaur was still out in the open, there were extra chunks missing from it but there was only one group that could be the culprits.

The Raptors.

Max would have a grumble but they deserved it, which reminded him to give them a treat, the prime meat jerky that he had stashed a way, would make a nice treat for them or even a few Dodo eggs. His bladder screamed at him and Max wandered over to his outhouse, he really needed to build an indoor toilet and possibly a shower. It was definitely something to think about.

Once his bladder was empty, Max made his way back to the house. Grumbling to himself Max rummaged around his tool box before he was able to find his flint, grabbing some dry grass and a few sticks he began to get a fire going. Blowing on the tiny embers, Max coaxed the fire into life. He could have used his abilities but that was being lazy and being lazy was a good way to get himself killed, it was one thing to use his abilities as a last resort but he had plenty of materials around him at the moment so he had no excuse.

If it had been the middle of winter, then it would have been a different matter entirely.

Max wandered over to the Dodo pen and was pleasantly surprised to see eggs on the ground, normally it would take a few days for a Dodo to lay an egg or two. But it looked like he was having some good luck, so Max was going to enjoy it. Climbing over the wooden fence he gathered the eggs and used his sleep shirt as a makeshift basket, once he had gathered the eggs Max carefully climbed out of the pen. It looked like it was going to be meat and eggs for breakfast, maybe some tea as well. That was if he had any tea leaves left, he hoped he did.

Max looked at Onyx who was shuffling closer to him, he raised a thin black eye brow.

"Oh alright." He tossed an egg at Onyx who happily caught it in mid air.

Max laughed as Onyx ate the egg with gusto, the Sabertooth licked his lips and eyed up the rest of the eggs.

"No, you will make yourself sick." Onyx whined as Max walked away with the rest of the eggs, once again he had been stopped. But that was alright, there were plenty of chances to get more eggs.

Besides he could always get the cub to give him an extra egg or two, but that was later, right now the cub was sleeping and that was a good thing. Growing cubs needed plenty of food and sleep. Onyx wandered over to the den, he was going to go and sleep with the cub. If Jade could get extra treats and cuddle time with the cub then so could he, he wasn't going to let the Direwolf get the better of him!

Max watched as Onyx lumbered into the house, he really needed to make it bigger. An extra bedroom would be a good thing, Obi-Wan would need his own room. He also needed to fix the Refining Forge, some of the stones were loose on it. That was a job that couldn't be put off, he had metal ore that needed smelting. He also needed to get the water tower up and running, which meant laying pipes. Irrigating his crops was a highly stressful and time consuming process as needed a lot of piping, which meant metal or stone. But the metal was durable than stone, but that was another problem getting the ore which he then had to process in the forge and then hammer it into shape.

He had been working on the irrigation system for over a year and a half and yet he was still no closer to finishing it, but like many things on the Island all he could do was keep moving forwards. He would get there in the end, although it could be worse he could live on Scorched Earth, the people who lived there had to deal with a desert and heat waves.

He had spent some time there when he had first arrived on the planet, and he had explored many of the other islands, but he couldn't do that now. He had other commitments and he wasn't going to leave Obi-Wan in a strange place, right now Obi-Wan needed a stable home, security and someone who would listen and put him first. Perhaps when Obi-Wan was older, then he would take the other with him and show him the other islands. That was assuming that Obi-Wan was still with him.

Grabbing a clean pan he put it on the fire and hummed as it began to heat up, walking over to the smokehouse he entered it before grabbing some cured bacon, prime meat jerky, and he rummaged around to see if he did have any dried tea leaves. Tea was his one luxury, he didn't have that much of a sweet tooth and he had quit smoking years ago. He couldn't get drunk as his body metabolized alcohol far more quickly than he could drink it, so tea was his only vice.

With a cry of triumph he exited the smokehouse, his prize clutched in his hand, kicking the door closed he turned around only to pause. There sitting next to the fire happily cooking the Dodo eggs was Obi-Wan, a couple of cracked eggs shells were scattered around him. Obi-Wan turned and looked at him and a dimpled smile was aimed at him.

"Good morning." 

Max leveled a stern look at Obi-Wan who didn't look all that repentant.

"You should be in bed." Max deposited his findings into a bowl, he looked at Jade and Onyx. 

"You two were meant to keep him in bed." Neither of them would meet his gaze, both knew that they had done wrong.

"It wasn't their fault, I got up early so that I could do my daily meditation. It's part of the routine that we get taught at the temple." Obi-Wan gave the two a head scratch each, the two of them preened.

Max looked at them and found that he wasn't angry but rather disappointed, which in some cases could be worse than anger.

"Next time tell me." Max looked at Obi-Wan, who then nodded his head in agreement, that was something that he could easily agree to.

"Budge over and let me cook, you shouldn't have moved with your sprained ankle. So you will sit there and do nothing." Obi-Wan reluctantly relinquished control of the pan.

Max quickly cracked open one of the Dodo eggs and put it in the pan with some more fat, the egg hissed and sizzled as it was cooked. 

"Pass me the bowl, the one next to the plates." Obi-Wan passed over the bowl and the plates, before sitting closer to Max.

"I meant to ask you last night, but what are you?" There was no judgement in Obi-Wan's question, instead just curiosity.

Max took a deep breath and held it before he slowly released it.

"That is a complicated answer, the short answer is I am a hybrid between two species, but because of that fact I was never fully accepted in certain circles. My own family included. The long answer involves hundreds and thousands of years worth of history, along with my entire family tree." In that moment Obi-Wan noticed that Max looked far older than what his physical appearance suggested.

"Well the short answer is fine with me." The cheeky smile that Obi-Wan aimed at Max had the older man laughing.

"Brat." Max leaned over and ruffled his hair, Obi-Wan stiffened slightly unused to such casual displays of affection.

Max either noticed how stiff he had gotten and was choosing to ignore it or he was simply giving him some privacy as he tried to gather his thoughts. Obi-Wan was grateful to the older man, still it was strange having someone take his comfort into account.

"Dodo eggs, prime meat jerky and cured bacon for breakfast with some citronal infused tea. Not much but it will keep you going until lunch." Obi-Wan accepted the plate with a grateful smile.

Max watched as the water began to boil, there was something therapeutic about making tea, the routine was soothing in a way. He kept an eye on Obi-Wan who thought that he was being sneaky giving Onyx and Jade pieces of his breakfast, Max wanted to say something but the smile on Obi-Wan's face caused him to pause. This was the first that he had seen Obi-Wan act like his actual age and with what Obi-Wan had told him the night before it was a relief, it meant that there was still some sort of innocence left in Obi-Wan. That it hadn't all been destroyed by people's careless actions, however he needed food as well.

"I saw that." The three wide eye looks that he got was well worth it.

"I don't know what you mean." The attempt at innocence, startled a laugh out of Max, he tilted his head back as he roared with laughter.

Obi-Wan watched with his heart in his throat as Max laughed, his eyes were crinkled at the corners and his black hair was around him like a silken blanket. Obi-Wan flushed slightly there was no denying that Max was attractive, but he wasn't Obi-Wan's preferred choice. If anything Max was more along the lines of an older brother or a parental figure, but that didn't mean that Obi-Wan couldn't appreciate beauty. Obi-Wan had always admired the Mandalorians, the way they had endured thousands of years even though their empire had fallen and they had killed countless Jedi, they had still held true to their customs and beliefs, they hadn't changed. That was something to admire and respect, Obi-Wan continued eating as Max poured the water into two cups.

"Did you make them yourself?" Obi-Wan shovelled the last of the Dodo egg into his mouth.

Max paused with his cup pressed against his lips, the citrus tea filled his senses as he looked at Obi-Wan above the rim of his cup.

"I have made everything here." Max took a sip of his tea and allowed himself to enjoy it.

Obi-Wan looked at the tea in the cup, it smelled strange but not unpleasant. In fact it was rather nice and it was something that he could enjoy if given the chance. Obi-Wan watched as Max swirled the tea around the cup before draining it in one go, Obi-Wan copied his actions carefully swirling the tea around the cup. Before drinking it one go, the full flavour of the citronal hit him in one go. Obi-Wan struggled not to cough, he hadn't expected it to be so strong. Eyes watering he looked at Max who was tidying up the mess from breakfast, Obi-Wan was glad that he never saw him make the mistake that he did. Obi-Wan wasn't going to be making that mistake again that was for certain, it was strange Obi-Wan had known Max for only a day almost 2 days and yet it felt as if he had known the other man his whole life and for some reason it didn't scare him as much as it should.

"Right we have a few jobs to do today, your's is to sit down and do nothing. You need to stay off your ankle, I don't care if you can use the Force, you will not be doing anything physically demanding today." A hard look was sent his way and Obi-Wan found himself shrinking back slightly.

"Look right now it is just a sprain, but you push yourself too far, too quickly and it could end up worse. The best thing that you can do is to keep off it, once I am completely sure that it is healed, then you can help." Despite the stern words Max was rather gentle, Obi-Wan understood what the other was saying. However he wasn't used to someone putting him first, to actually caring about his injuries.

Maybe he was being cruel and unfair to Qui-Gon and the others, there were a lot of Jedi in the temple and it wasn't possible to keep track of each and every one. But he had thought that maybe Qui-Gon would notice when he had gotten injured, but he hadn't been able to test it because he had then left the order to join a civil war on Melida/Daan. Even when he had returned to the temple Qui-Gon had barely paid him any attention, perhaps it was easy for Qui-Gon to ignore him. After all it was his fault that Tahl became blind, if he had been better, quicker and had simply agreed with Qui-Gon then maybe he would have noticed that something was wrong.

"Look all I am going to do today is plan, make sure that there is enough supplies for winter, butcher a few animals. Then the smokehouse needs refilling and refuelling, then I need to figure out how much stone and cement I will need to make another room. The truth is I have been putting off adding a new room for years, I haven't had a need for another room. But now I don't have an excuse, I highly doubt that you want to continue to share my bed with me." The Force rang with the truth of Max's words and while Obi-Wan was happy that he wasn't causing any major delays with his sprained ankle, he got the feeling that Max was staying closer to home than he normally would.

It occurred to him that he was using the Force as lie detector, idly he wondered what the Masters at the temple would think, he was after all using the Force for frivolous means. But then again was it?

If he hadn't actively been using the Force as he was then he wouldn't have known that Max was sincere about his offer, or that Max meant him no harm. Some beings who could use the Force were natural empaths but the majority of them weren't which meant that they had to create a way that allowed them to read the emotions and intentions of other beings, it was a skill that took years if not decades to learn. Even then it was hit and miss if they did manage to learn it, in the temple there had only been three Masters that Obi-Wan knew of Master Yoda, Master Yaddle and Master Plo Koon.

Obi-Wan shook his head, now wasn't the time to think on such things, his mind was clouded and that was a clear sign that he needed to meditate and soon.

"Max?" Obi-Wan waited for Max to respond, a sharp axe was in his hands. The metal blade glinted in the air as it came down and severed the limb of an already skinned animal.

He watched in fascination as Max trimmed the excess fat off the front leg and put it into a nearby bucket, Jade was sat next to the butchering table, catching up the scraps that were thrown towards her. With deft hands Max separated the meat from the bone, Jade whined as she saw the bone. With a laugh Max tossed the bone at her, Jade jumped and snatched the bone out of the air. Max then walked over to the smokehouse with several pieces of meat dangling on hooks, opening the door he coughed several times as he took in lungfuls of smoke, Obi-Wan watched as he disappeared into the smokehouse and returned empty handed before repeating the process several more times.

"What's up kiddo?" Max was wiping his hands on some sort of cloth, as he approached Obi-Wan.

"Do you have anything that I can meditate on?" Obi-Wan didn't fidget as he asked his question, if it had been anyone else he wouldn't have bothered to ask.

But Max had proven in the short time that they had known each other, that he didn't mind questions and so long as it was in his power then he would do his best to provide it.

"No, sorry. But I could weave a temporary mat for you, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours if you don't mind waiting." Obi-Wan eagerly nodded his head, he was bored and the idea of learning a new skill was very appealing to him.

Obi-Wan had noticed that Max wasn't much of a talker, he didn't fill up the air with unneeded chatter. That wasn't to say he didn't talk, he did as Obi-Wan knew but when he talked it was normally important. As he had found out, Max was also gentle, it was very well hidden and if Obi-Wan hadn't have seen it with his own eyes then he would have doubted that he was capable of such things.

But it had also taught him a very valuable lesson, things weren't what people assumed: always look beneath the surface and then look again, Max looked pretty with his long black hair and exotic eyes. Many would assume that with his looks he had lived in the lap of luxury and never needed or wanted for anything, yet when Max had touched him to calm him down. Obi-Wan had felt the scars and calluses that covered his hands, this was a man that was used to the hard life. That had spent a great deal of time working with his hands, something that wouldn't have been known with a single glance.

Assuming was the easiest way to make an ass out of one's self.

Obi-Wan sat and watched as Max separated each fibre and cut the ends neatly, before burning it slightly once both the ends were charred he put it to one side. Once he had sorted out each piece of fibre and put it into different piles Max spoke.

"Do you know what lattice is?" Obi-Wan looked at Max, he was sure that he had heard the word before but he wasn't sure where.

"Lattice is sometimes used on the tops of pies to make it more pleasing to the eye, however it is more often used as fences and because it makes it harder for the wind to blow it over. It can also be used as decoration for windows, walls and staircases." 

Obi-Wan watched as Max made a basic lattice shape, the square was filled with pieces of fabric crossing over each other, the gaps were large and Obi-Wan understood why it would be used in fences.

"It can be made from any material, weaving is a similar process except it is traditionally done on a loom and there are no gaps and it's made from leaves." 

Max pulled out a loom that looked as if it had seen better days, the crude handmade nails were starting to rust and the wood was splitting in some places. If he were to guess Obi-Wan would say that the loom was most likely older than him, which would help to give him a time frame as to how long Max had been here for.

Obi-Wan watched with rapt attention as Max began the process of setting up the loom and threading the fabric onto it, around, through, over under and then back over again.

"It'll take some practice but you will be able to do this." Obi-Wan shuffled closer so that he could watch deft fingers make short work of it.

Over, under, over.

Max wasn't even looking at what he was doing, instead he was taking the time to explain things to Obi-Wan.

"Days on Ark are very different, a normal standard day has roughly 36 hours in it and 12 hours of night, in summer we have 40 hours of day and only 8 hours of night. Winter varies, sometimes we can have 36 to 40 hours of night and 12 to 8 hours of day, even then there is never any guarantee that you will be able to leave the house. There is roughly just over 2 months until winter hits us and everything grinds to a halt."

Over, under, over.

The action was highly repetitive, but it took skill to be able to do it without looking at him. 

"My first winter here I froze to death."

Obi-Wan looked up sharply, his gaze landed on Max who he knew was still alive and well.

"It's part of that complicated answer I told you about, however instead of a long winded conversation. Let me just say that I don't die properly, I can't actually stay dead."

Shock ran through him, that completely altered almost everything that he knew. He knew that certain species were long lived Masters Yoda and Yaddle were prime examples of that, but even they could die.

"I had to wait until spring for my body to thaw out, it was a highly uncomfortable experience. That being said death doesn't really work the same on Ark as it does everywhere else, see the blue diamond in my arm?"

Obi-Wan's eyes drifted to said object, it felt strange and he wasn't sure if he liked the feeling it gave off.

"This stores all of our thoughts, memories, emotions and everything that makes us, us. Then should anything happen to completely destroy our bodies, the diamond then takes what it had stored and it is then put into the new body."

Obi-Wan tilted his head to the side as he tried to understand what Max was saying.

"So if I were to die and my body was completely destroyed, the gem embedded in my body would store my information like a computer chip until a new body could be created for me."

Obi-Wan's mouth formed an 'O' as he looked at the gem in his arm.

"So death isn't permanent here?"

Max put the half finished mat to one side, he gave Obi-Wan his full attention as he explained.

"Yes and no, there was a Tribe when I had first arrived here. They were cannibals, they deliberately went to war with other Tribes just so they could capture any survivors. Some were kept as slaves and some were kept as food, it depended on the person's gender. Most women that were caught, were tortured and raped until their minds broke, once they were the perfect docile doll the men from the Tribe would breed with them. When the woman was unable to have any more children, the children that she had birthed would then be allowed to eat her. Then one day the gems in their arms turned grey, they had been deactivated. No one knows how or why it happened." Obi-Wan felt sick to his stomach, which wasn't an easy feat to begin with. Not with what he had seen, yet here he was feeling queasy like an Initiate.

"A decade later and the entire Tribe had completely died off." Max had picked up the loom again and continued with his weaving, his eyes never once leaving Obi-Wan's face.

The information had certainly put things into perspective for him, while it did unnerve him he could easily understand while it held great appeal to people. It was a safety net for some and for others it was a great gift, but for some it must feel like a curse. Obi-Wan wondered what group he would fall into and that was a daunting thought.

"There it's done and it took less time than what I thought." Max passed over the finished mat and Obi-Wan took it with grateful hands.

"Thank you." Neither of them mentioned that his voice broke as he spoke.

"Welcome." With that Max got back up, his joints creaking and groaning as he did so.

Obi-Wan set the mat on the ground, and sat on it. While it wasn't the most comfortable thing he had sat on, it was the thought that counted and he was going to treasure it until it fell apart. Sitting in the lotus position Obi-Wan allowed himself to sink into the ever flowing currents of the Force.

He was unaware of the eyes that were watching him, a whistle filled the air.

"Watch him."

Jade stood up from where she had been chewing her bone and moved towards Obi-Wan, before sitting down next to him.

* * *

With Jade settled into her new position, Max felt himself relax slightly. Jade was smitten with Obi-Wan and she enjoyed her new job, it also had the added benefit of separating Onyx and Jade as the two fought when they spent too much time together. So this helped to ease tensions before they got to unbearable levels, while the Argentavis hadn't returned and most likely wouldn't for some time, the pack was doing their daily patrol and wouldn't be back until dark. Then they would feed and then do another patrol before settling down for the night, sometimes they would return with a kill it all depended on if anything wandered into their path.

Max looked at Obi-Wan, the teen was relaxed and it lightened something inside of him.

Making the mat had taken up some time and while it hadn't been part of the original plan that he had, he couldn't bring himself to regret it. The way that Obi-Wan's face had lit up was painful, to get excited over a mat?

Max wanted to put his fist through something.

It seemed to be a reoccurring theme with Obi-Wan, he would say or do something that would cause a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest and then something would slip out or he would do something that had Max's blood boiling. He had known that Obi-Wan lived in a temple so he had thought that Obi-Wan at least had his own clothes and items, something similar to a monk of his home world.

Yet Obi-Wan had gotten excited over a hand made mat.

Which had led him to smashing up rocks, he needed some more stone so that he could add an extra room and he also needed to get rid of his anger. It was a win-win situation as far as he was concerned, but it also brought other things to his mind.

Obi-Wan needed to talk about what he had been through and there was only Max that he could speak to, after all it wasn't as if there were therapy groups on the Island. So they needed to address Obi-Wan's issues, but it was going to be at the teens pace and if it took a century?

Then that was what it took.

Suddenly something brushed up against his mind shields and whatever it was, was old, very old. For a moment he tensed expecting a mental attack, it had been millennia since he had experienced one but that didn't mean he had forgotten how to defend himself.

Love.

Comfort.

Acceptance.

Reassurance.

He paused, the feeling was almost maternal, whatever it was didn't mean to harm him, but that didn't mean he was going to relax. A gentle nudge against his shielding had him pausing, it was asking for permission. Taking a deep breath he released it before sending confirmation back, whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been getting thrown into Obi-Wan's memories head first.

Onyx whined as he tried to get their humans attentive only for him to fail, he even bit his hand yet he still got no reaction. For a moment he considered running back to the den and getting Jade and the cub, but just as he was about to move, their human moved.

Max dry heaved as he exited Obi-Wan's memories, everything he had just experienced had been from Obi-Wan's point of view, he had experienced a war as a teenager. The sickening stench of burnt flesh was clinging to him, the phantom flames were still burning him.

"Why? I was already going to help him, you didn't need to violate the pair of us."

Apologies.

Remorse.

It washed over him but so did something else, he could feel it at the back of his head a long dormant ability that he had forgotten about.

Bonding.

Bonding was traditionally done between spouses and children, but he had intentionally forgotten about it. It wasn't as if he had a spouse or a child until recently, but even then the bond with Obi-Wan was fragile. It was in its infancy, but that had been before. Before what had happened, a startled laugh broke free.

"You bonded us, a parental bond." 

Confirmation.

Acceptance.

Love.

"Does Obi-Wan know what you have done?"

Confirmation.

Reassurance.

"He agreed?"

Confirmation.

Max released a sigh, if Obi-Wan had agreed then he wasn't going to fight it. If the teen hadn't then he would ve kicking up a storm, as it was the ground trembled as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He wasn't that bothered about the bond, he had known that one day he would bond. But he hadn't expected to get a child before he got married.

Amusement.

"Next time ask."

Acceptance.

With that the feelings disappeared and left Max in a clearing with a pounding headache, how was this his life?

Onyx whined and licked his hand.

"You and me both bud." With a groan Max grabbed the mining cart and began to push it back to the house. His hand throbbing, that was going to be his first job when he got back home. Sort his hand out before it got infected.

He still needed to mark out where he was going to put a new room and no strange visitors or pounding headache was going to stop him, once it was done then he would deal with his headache. He could feel Obi-Wan in the back of his mind, curious and gentle. In truth if he hadn't the bond forcefully opened then he doubted he would have known just how powerful it would be between them, and how right it felt to have Obi-Wan in the back of his mind. He was rather reluctant to close it. He felt Obi-Wan prodding at him, a smile tugged at his lips as he prodded back.

This wasn't the worst thing to happen, but it was shaping up to be one of the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope you enjoyed it, please leave your comments below.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For once in his life he wanted to be greedy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This would have been out sooner but got swamped with research for this chapter and the other chapters, do any of you have any idea how many types of soil there is?!
> 
> Lots, there are lots.
> 
> Hopefully the length will make it up.

Obi-Wan had been raised to trust and have faith in the Force, he had spent many hours listening to Jedi Masters lecture them about how they served the Force, how they were the Force's to command. It had also been the beginning of his self hatred, why had he been created to be a slave?

Because that's what the Jedi were, slaves.

Or at least Obi-Wan thought so at the time, then he had gotten older and had thought more on what was being lectured and he realised that the Jedi were slaves to their own traditions and beliefs, they were Sith except they weren't immersed in Darkness but in Light. Instead of preaching about power, greed and destruction, the Jedi preached about light, not getting attached to anything, no emotions and serving the Force.

The Jedi order had stagnated.

Their own traditions and beliefs were killing them and unless the changed then they would cease to exist and that had been a painful truth, it had been part of the reason why he had been so excited to be Qui-Gon's Padawan because if anyone could see the flaws and need to change it was him. However it wasn't meant to be.

While he was meditating he began to organise his thoughts, he had received a lot of information and he needed to go through it. He had been in the middle of sorting through everything when he had felt a wave of love, remorse, compassion. Instinctively he knew that this was the Force and it was contacting him. Obi-Wan basked in the feeling of unconditional love and acceptance, it was a novel feeling and one that he didn't want to forget.

Then he felt a gentle prodding against his mind, for a moment he felt fear, his mind has always been his and his alone. His darkest thoughts and desires, he had never shared with anyone. But this wasn't just anyone or anything, this was the Force, he had always been taught to release everything to the Force. 

But he was scared, this was the Force, the very thing that had given him his abilities. 

Reassurance.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, there was no judgement, there was no one here other than himself and the Force he didn't have anything to fear.

Amusement.

Obi-Wan wondered what the Force could be amused about, it wasn't as if he was doing anything interesting. All he was doing was sitting on his mat trying to meditate, Obi-Wan felt another gentle nudge against his shield. He hesitated, he hadn't properly lowered his shielding since Bandomeer, truth was he was scared to.

Acceptance.

Comfort.

Affection.

Love.

Obi-Wan's breath caught in his throat, he knew what the Force was saying without words, it didn't matter what Obi-Wan has done or will do. It will still love him. He wasn't sure what to make of it, such offers didn't come without a price or catch. 

Sadness.

Momentarily he thought that the sadness was directed at him only for him to realise that it was upset for him, for some unknown reason the Force was upset. But why?

It wasn't as if his life actually meant anything.

Regret.

Love.

What did it have to regret? It wasn't as if the Force had helped to create Obi-Wan.

Confirmation.

Obi-Wan paused that couldn't be possible, could it?

He was so very confused and all he wanted to do was go to sleep and pretend that none of this had happened, it was one thing to land on a strange planet and meet a local who lived there. It was another thing entirely to meet what was basically a God.

Reassurance.

Obi-Wan was confused and he wasn't sure what to do, he considered getting up and trying to find Max.

Love.

Protection.

He tilted his head to the side, it was hard having a conversation with the Force as it didn't use a normal means of talking, instead it sent emotions and sometimes it sent images.This time the nudge against his shield was more insistent, but despite that it was still gentle as if the Force was scared of hurting him. Obi-Wan nodded his head, giving the Force permission to enter his mind, and suddenly it slipped through his shielding and Obi-Wan felt his breath catch in his throat.

He was surrounded by love, acceptance, warmth and a fierce protectiveness. At first he thought that the emotions were coming from the Force until he realised that they were being filtered to him, there was only one person that he knew. Obi-Wan desperately wanted to have that directed at him, to have someone to hug him when he needed it. 

Excitement.

He didn't even have time to understand what was going on before the Force began to swell, it gathered around him as the power level in the area began to rise. Jade whimpered and whined from her position next to him, he wanted to reassure her to tell her that everything was alright. But he couldn't get his voice to work.

Calm.

He had to trust in the Force, but that was easier said than done.

Reassurance.

The Force swirled and danced around him streaks of blue and grey filled his sight as he tried to understand what he was seeing, but he couldn't and while it should scare him, he found that it didn't. Suddenly everything began to rise and he found himself trapped in a bubble of pure Force, it was gentle as it cradled him.

Accept.

Accept.

Obi-Wan didn't know what he needed to accept, there wasn't anything here for him to accept. Only Max and his creatures.

Accept.

Max?

Approval.

Confirmation.

But that would be being greedy and selfish and those traits weren't acceptable in a Jedi.

Remorse.

Guilt.

Obi-Wan wanted to reassure the Force, it wasn't his fault that he was a bad Jedi. He had tried his very best, but it hadn't been enough. Was he sent here as a punishment?

Anger.

Guilt.

Regret.

Obi-Wan wanted to ask what it regretted, what had happened in his life wasn't its fault. No that had just been the terrible hand that he had been dealt, among other things. 

Remorse.

Determination.

Suddenly he wasn't there any more, his body may have been on the physical plane but his mind was somewhere else. It felt as if he was flying through the air, everything was blurred, distorted, everytime he tried to look at something it disappeared from view. Then he began to feel things that weren't his own, he knew that the Force had allowed him to feel Max's emotions earlier but that was then. 

Fierce determination.

Wary acceptance.

Terrible loneliness.

But there hidden away, as if he was afraid to scare Obi-Wan away, was a deep untapped well of love, just pure love and for once in his life Obi-Wan wanted. 

Happiness.

Acceptance.

Confirmation.

Idly he wondered why the Force only sent basic impressions of what it was feeling, unlike the more complex emotions that he had received from Max. It was something to think about later, slowly he drifted out of his thoughts. The Force was patient as it waited for Obi-Wan to centre himself, then as if there was a hand guiding him forward, he began to move. 

The feeling of love didn't leave him and he didn't want it to, he clung to it. 

Accept.

Accept.

Accept.

The nudging and urging was confusing him, accept what?

Accept.

Accept.

Accept.

He was scared to accept, he didn't know what he was accepting. Yet even as he teetered on the edge, Max's love encompassed him, the possibility that Max could love him without limits, without rules or conditions was too much for him. 

Accept.

For once in his life Obi-Wan was greedy, he was selfish. He accepted.

The Force sang with approval as the bond between them began to form and grow, the bond twisted, twirled and grew before his eyes. Blue and grey twisted around each other, until it was next to impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. It was breathtaking, Obi-Wan doubted that he would ever get tired of seeing it, the Force stilled before disappearing.

Obi-Wan was still enjoying the feeling of the bond, his bond with Qui-Gon had never been like this. Max made no effort to shield himself, his emotions flowed freely through the bond. Unlike Qui-Gon who would shield himself for long periods at a time, even before the mess that was Melida/Daan. Maybe that was why it was so easy for Qui-Gon to leave him there, they didn't have the bond that they were supposed to. Instead it had been like an infected wound, constantly weeping and bleeding.

Obi-Wan prodded at the new bond, he was fearful that Max would resent him. The bond was his fault after all, he had been the one that had been selfish and greedy. 

Instead there had been amusement followed by Max prodding the bond, relief swept through him like a tidal wave. He had been so sure that Max was going to resent him, instead the bond flared with affection and he felt his lips twitching upwards. Obi-Wan prodded Max once again and soon the pair of them were prodding each other backwards and forwards, Obi-Wan felt amusement fill him as he prodded Max with all the childishness that he could muster. 

Joyous laughter left him as he felt continuous prodding, it seemed as if Max could be just as childish. 

Obi-Wan knew that he should be worried, he had spent so little time with Max. They had only known each other for 2 days, yet for some unknown reason it felt as if Obi-Wan had known Max his whole life. Obi-Wan knew that it shouldn't be possible, which meant that something had interfered, in this case it had been the Force. Or at least that was what Obi-Wan was assuming, which was risky business to begin with. 

There was no way to undo a natural Force bond, he knew that from his time with Qui-Gon, they could block the bond but it couldn't be severed like other bonds could be. Obi-Wan had seen the effects of a severed training bond, it wasn't pleasant in the slightest. It wasn't something that he wanted to witness ever again, but he knew that there wasn't any guarantee that he wouldn’t see such a thing.

A gentle prod forcefully dragged him out of his increasingly dark thoughts, he wasn’t at the temple any more, their rules didn't apply to him. It wasn't for lack of want, but he knew that if he adhered to their rules he would end up dead. While he did have some sort of a safety net, he still didn't want to experience dying. Obi-Wan sent a wave of reassurance to Max, who was broadcasting worry through the bond, Obi-Wan knew that the older man picked up on his increasing depressing thoughts. 

It was strange, he was used to a muted bond. He was used to only the most powerful emotions trickling down the bond, it was a startling difference.

Qui-Gon and Max.

Both had bonds with him, yet the bonds were incredibly different. One was muted and rejected. The other was open and accepted.

Two vastly different men.

If he had to choose then Obi-Wan would choose Max, the thought was liberating in a way he hadn't expected. But he had made his choice and he wasn't going to go back on it, the only thing that he could do was move forward.

Obi-Wan stretched his legs, sitting in one position for so long had caused him to lose all feeling in his legs. Wincing he massaged his legs trying to get the blood to flow, his meditation hadn't gone exactly as he wanted it to but he couldn't complain that much. He had gotten much more out of the meditation than he had hoped for.

Onyx came bounding out of the trees, he didn't slow down when he caught sight of Obi-Wan instead he sped up. Obi-Wan braced for the impact that was impending, Onyx collided with him at such a speed that his breath was completely knocked from him. Yellow eyes pinned him in place as Onyx leaned down, drool dripping from him. Fear gripped his heart as it looked like Onyx was going to bite him, Obi-Wan took a steadying breath before he released his fear into the Force. However instead of sharp teeth that could tear his flesh from his bones a rough tongue made an appearance, large globs of drool hit his face as Onyx continued to lick him. 

A whistle broke through the air.

Onyx climbed off Obi-Wan only to be tackled by a black blur, snarling and growling filled the air as Jade and Onyx fought. Fur and blood filled the air in some sort of sickening and twisted dance, Obi-Wan was rooted to the spot in terror. Unlike Obi-Wan who was frozen, Max snarled, he sounded more animal than man as he launched himself into the fight, body morphing mid air. Obi-Wan was unable to look at the giant fluffy cat-like creature that stood where Max had been, it's white fur was covered in giant black spots and it's tail was long and fluffy as well. When it roared Obi-Wan covered his ears, it was easily taller than Onyx by a foot. 

Obi-Wan was shocked, this was what Max meant by hybrid and complicated?

Obi-Wan wasn't sure what to think let alone do, snarling filled the air as Max launched himself forwards. His teeth and claws bared his teeth successfully sinking into Onyx's hindlegs, Onyx tried to dislodge him only for a set of claws to dig into the meaty part of his flank. Jade whined and backed off before laying on her back exposing her belly in a sign of submission, Onyx had somehow managed to dislodge Max who was laid on the ground dazed. Before Onyx had a chance to attack him, Max had stood up and the two were now circling each other. Instinctively Obi-Wan knew that he couldn't interfere, this was a dominace match if he interfered then Max would lose his place as Alpha and then they both could be in serious trouble.

Onyx lunged at Max who dodged the attack, while Onyx was more muscle than Max, Max was clearly more quicker and with Onyx already injured. The fight was in Max's favour, but that could change if Onyx was able to get a decent hit on Max. This time when Onyx lunged at Max, he didn't try to dodge it. Instead as Onyx leapt through the air Max ran underneath him, claws glinted in the light as Max aimed for Onyx's unprotected belly.

Onyx howled as Max's claws struck true, Onyx fell to the ground with a thud, his breathing labored. Obi-Wan rushed over to Onyx determined to help him, Max shifted back, his hands were covered in rapidly drying blood turning his hands sticky. He limped as he walked over to Obi-Wan and Onyx.

"Get me a water skin from the preserving bin, you will be able to move quicker than me." Pain echoed through the Force as Max tried and failed to hide a wince.

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan looked at Max, despite the blood he couldn't see any outside injuries,however that didn't mean there weren't any internal ones.

"My ribs got fractured when Onyx landed on me." 

Obi-Wan went to stand up, he needed to get the water skin and out of them both his injury was the least serious. Instead Jade came running over, the strap of the water skin in her mouth.

"Good girl." Fingers coated in sickly brown blood run through her fur, Obi-Wan could hear Max struggling to breathe from where he was sitting on the ground.

"Let me." Obi-Wan pulled the top out of the water skin and waited for Max to tell him what to do next.

"Pour the water on him, all of it. I don't know if I hit any organs, so better to be safe than sorry." The slight wheeze every time he breathed was rather worrying.

The Force urged him forwards, to help, to heal. Obi-Wan didn't know the first thing about Force healing, it was difficult to learn let alone master. Most beings were Knights and Masters before they took their first healing lessons, even those that were natural Force healers had to undergo lessons for years before they were allowed to do their first healing session and even then it was under supervision.

Watch.

Listen.

Learn.

Obi-Wan watched as the water began to rise, it separated into individual droplets. Twisting his fingers the water began to dance in the air, silver and violet eyes glowed blue, the droplets began to merge together. The water swirling and twirling through the air began to change colour, slowly it changed from being clear to a darkish blue colour. Obi-Wan was mesmerised by the sight, the Force hummed with approval, the urge to touch was there and Obi-Wan wanted to touch but something told him not to. The air began to get denser as the water began to spin faster and faster, slowly the vortex began to disappear into Onyx. 

For a few minutes nothing happened, Jade whimpered as she laid down next Onyx her head on him. A rumbling sound came from Onyx, he lifted his head and looked around. His yellow eyes landed on Max before he lowered his gaze, the show of submission relaxed something inside of Max and the older man fell backwards. His face was contorted in pain as he struggled to breathe, he coughed and blood splattered against his lips.

"Not fractured then." A weak attempt at laughter caused Obi-Wan to scramble forwards.

"What do I do?" He didn't dare to touch the other, frightened that he would make the situation worse.

Touch.

Heal.

Obi-Wan wanted to cry, he didn't know what to do, it wasn't as if he could heal him.

"It's alright kiddo, just get a water skin and I'll guide you." Blood bubbled up and Obi-Wan could feel Max's life slipping away.

Obi-Wan concentrated on the water skin, it may be classed as a frivolous use of the Force but he didn't care. That chapter of his life was over now, the water skin came flying through the air and landed in his hand.

"What do I do now?" He violently squashed the panic that was threatening to build in his chest.

"Pour it on me, don't worry about spilling any." The attempt at humour was a poor one and Obi-Wan didn't appreciate it.

Pulling the stopper out of the water skin, he kept a hold on the water skin as he pulled off Max's shirt. Obi-Wan glared darkly at Max who tried to help, blood splattered against Obi-Wan's cheek. Obi-Wan poured the water onto the skin, Max was pale and his breathing was getting more labored. From the sound of his breathing a rib or two could have punctured one of his lungs or possibly both of his lungs, it was a race against time before Max drowned in his own blood.

"Concentrate, feel the water. Feel how each droplet is a different shape and size, don't rush it. Just feel, I have time." He didn't, but he wasn't going to tell Obi-Wan that.

Obi-Wan didn't call him out on his lie, he could feel Max dying as they spoke.

"I can do this." The Force wrapped itself around him, giving him extra confidence.

Obi-Wan felt the Force flow into the water, almost as if it was a tide ebbing and flooding. It was a fight not to get lost in the current, the Force crooned in his ear.

Love.

Approval.

Determination.

Obi-Wan had his eyes closed so he missed the way that the water was turning into white streams of light, Max watched with wonder and awe as the light curled around Obi-Wan's hands. He knew that Obi-Wan could use the Force but he doubted that any Force user had seen anything like this before, the light streams moved towards him. He bit back a groan of pain as it entered his body, it felt as if he was on fire. The intense burning pain lasted a few moments before it disappeared and a soothing cold feeling took over, his ribs felt numb. His breathing got easier and the rattle left his chest, he had never seen healing like that before, it looked like a hybrid between two forms.

Obi-Wan was full of surprises.

As soon as he sat up Obi-Wan fell forwards, the bond between them was muted. Soft puffs of air against his neck alerted him to the fact that Obi-Wan was still alive, he had merely passed out. Something that he wasn't happy about.

"Doing it my way wouldn't have resulted in him passing out." There was a sharp edge to his voice.

Regret. 

Remorse.

"I know you care about him but his body is still developing and is incapable of handling them, sort of power levels, you can damage his body and mind beyond repair."

Regret.

Max struggled to breathe under the weight of such regret, it was as if it was physically manifesting.

"Hey, mistakes happen every being makes mistakes, it's how we learn. Living beings are different to you, you are used to the high power levels. It won't harm you like it will others, you don't have a physical body like we do so this is completely new territory for you." 

Concern. 

Remorse.

Affection.

Max got the feeling that he was a parent to two children instead of one, however unlike Obi-Wan, the Force didn't which made it harder.

"So long as you don't do it again, let me teach him for now." 

Approval.

Affection.

With that it disappeared, Max breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Well you certainly keep things interesting." Max gently moved Obi-Wan off him so that he could stand up and pick Obi-Wan up easier.

Max whistled and Jade lifted her head from on top of Onyx's stomach. 

"Keep an eye on Onyx, make sure he doesn't move." Jade laid back down on Onyx intent on doing her job.

Max knelt down and picked up Obi-Wan, the teen was completely out of it and Max had no idea when or if he would awake. Channeling that much power in a body so young was disastrous, if it had been him then it wouldn't have mattered. He was old enough to know the consequences and if there was any damage he would be able to heal himself, Obi-Wan was still young, his body was still undergoing changes. He had already endured enough, he didn't need to endure any more.

With Obi-Wan safely in his arms Max made his way to the house, phantom pain still echoed in his ribs but he pushed it to one side. He had other things to worry about, such as Obi-Wan. He really needed to get some weight on Obi-Wan, hopefully before winter hit. Obi-Wan would need the extra padding, but he would deal with that later. Right now there were more important things to worry about.

"This is far too familiar."

Time was an incredibly tricky thing on Ark, with its entire rotation taking 48 hours, the days were incredibly long and felt even longer. One of Arks rotations was two of his home planets, it was possible that to Obi-Wan it felt even longer. While it had only been two Ark days, it would have been four days on his home planet. It took awhile for him to adjust and he did, eventually but even now he slipped. Maybe that was why they were so comfortable with each other?

There was no denying that they had bonded with each other very quickly, which shouldn't be possible in any sense. Which meant a few things, either he had a timelapse again and had assumed that more time had passed. Obi-Wan was still running off his home planet's time which meant that to him more time had passed or something had interfered with them and had caused the bond to grow between them and he wasn't talking about the soul bond either.

Three very real possibilities.

He already knew that there was outside influence, and the Force didn't have the first bit of knowledge when it came to squishy beings. It loved and cared for Obi-Wan there was no doubt about that, however the way it went about it was wrong. 

Still he got the better end of the deal in this.

Something which boiled his blood, Obi-Wan should be the one getting the better end of the deal. Not a cranky, antisocial bastard like him.

He put Obi-Wan on the bed before tucking the furs around him, grabbing his blanket he placed it over Obi-Wan and tucked it in as well. He looked at Obi-Wan before sighing, better untuck it he wasn't sure how Obi-Wan would react to being tucked in. Looking at the teen, Max felt his heart constrict if he wasn't careful Obi-Wan could end up dead before his time. While death wasn't entirely permanent on Ark, Obi-Wan would only get one childhood and it had already been destroyed as it was. He didn't need the rest of it ruined as well, he deserved happiness, love, comfort and security.

The last one he may not be able to fully provide, Ark was deadly towards an adult let alone a teenager. Max sighed, why could nothing go right for Obi-Wan, he needed a break. Yet there would be no chance of it, but he would do the best job he would be able to. He just hoped that he didn't fuck Obi-Wan up to badly. Once he was sure that Obi-Wan wouldn't be accidently rolling out of the bed, Max wandered over to the fire and put more dry firewood onto it. With Obi-Wan asleep he would need the extra warmth, that being said he wasn't going to close the door like he normally would. 

Onyx was still laid on the ground, Jade was curled around the Sabertooth. It was clear that she wasn't going to be moving anytime soon, not that he could blame her. She had never seen the two of them fight before, Onyx was the oldest out of his tames. Which meant that normally they didn't have fights like that, in the beginning they had fought for dominance a lot. They had left each other bloody, bruised and on the verge of death more often than not. It had been more than a decade since he had to fight Onyx like that, it made him wonder what had set Onyx off like that.

But that was a question for when Onyx was awake.

Right now he needed to take his mind off what had happened, with a determined stride he walked to the side of his house. He removed any of the big rocks, moving each rock with a mix of mab power and ability. Walking to his storage shed he grabbed some homemade twine and rope, leaving the shed he dumped his findings before going back in. This time when he exited he had wooden pegs and a hammer, dumping the items into a pile he began to check the ground. 

Once it was as clear as he was going to get it, he grabbed the wooden pegs and the hammer. Mentally he began to map the area, how deep the foundation would need to go and how high it would be. Windows, door and a fireplace would be mandatory, so he would need to mark them out as well. He stripped off his shirt, this was going to be very labour intensive so wearing a shirt was not the best idea. Not in the heat, with his shirt removed he began to hammer a peg into the ground.

Once the peg was in the ground Max pulled it out and stuck his hand into the hole, pulling his hand out of the ground he frowned. Clay, he could tell that by the texture of the soil, he squeezed it and watched as it kept its shape and didn't crumble. This side of the house was clay and that wasn't a good thing. Walking to the shed he threw open the door and grabbed a shovel, the only way he was going to know for certain was to dig down. Clay soils are made up of 40% water, but trees can alter the amount differently throughout the year, causing the soil to shrink or swell with enough force to affect the foundations of a building and so it's vital that the foundation is the right depth to prevent movement.

Something that he knew first hand, he had lost his first three houses to clay, water and trees. He didn't want another repeat, which meant digging. His back and shoulders ached, the skin on his back was starting to burn and he was getting dehydrated. Stopping for a break was looking like an excellent idea, and he could check on Obi-Wan. With a groan his back cracked, the sound was unpleasant and grated on his ears. He had already dug down 6 foot if not more, if he dug down any further he was going to do something drastic.

He didn't use his abilities all the time, it was an easy trap to fall into, it made people lazy, unmotivated and very easy pickings. After all, why bother to do something when they could just click their fingers and have it done, however he may not have a choice this time. But first he was going to check on Obi-Wan, that was his main priority at the moment, once he entered the house a tired groan fell from his lips. It wasn't even midday yet.

However, looking at Obi-Wan and seeing how peaceful he looked caused something to stir in his chest, the teen had moved around and was now laid on his side. His fingers were curled around Max's pillow, grabbing a water skin Max poured the water over Obi-Wan. The teen stirred slightly but didn't wake or move, instead of the darkish blue colour that signalled major injuries it turned light blue. There was no major damage to Obi-Wan, the tension that had been building in his chest eased and Max felt as if he could breathe better.

Pressing his hand against Obi-Wan's forehead he frowned at the slight temperature that he could feel, he had no idea how to deal with a sick or injured Force user. He didn't know what was normal and what wasn't.

Concern.

"Is this normal?" 

Confirmation.

"How do I help him?"

A nudge at his shields, he lowered them and was bombarded by information. Force exhaustion, fever normal, tiredness high, hunger poor, headaches and migraines normal. Max grit his teeth against the scream that wanted to break free, his brain felt as it was melting inside of his skull. His hands clutched his head as the information continued to enter his head, tears of blood streamed down his face. 

Apologies.

Remorse.

Max lifted his head, blood still trickling from his ears, eyes and nose.

"It's fine, I'm fine." His voice was hoarse and raspy, it felt as if he had been screaming for hours on end. It was a miracle that he was able to talk in the current state that he was in.

The next touch to him was soothing, relaxing he could feel his body going numb.

Comfort.

It felt as if arms were wrapped around him in an embrace, he wanted to relax into it but he couldn't. He removed himself from the comforting embrace, he could not and would not let himself get caught up in it.

Acceptance.

Max didn't say anything as the Force left, he didn't know what he could say anyway. He shivered as he suddenly felt cold, he rubbed his hands against his arms and checked on Obi-Wan again. This time he had the correct knowledge, his head was still pounding and his body was coated in dried or drying blood he felt absolutely disgusting. But he would deal with it later, there was a hot spring nearby he could use that. Obi-Wan would feel tired for a few days, it was a side effect of Force exhaustion, he would also need to keep an eye on his fever and liquid intake. Liquid was more important than food at the present moment in time, 

But for now the best thing that Obi-Wan could do was rest, with a kiss to Obi-Wan's forehead, Max left the house. He needed to gather more water, grabbing a couple of buckets and then made his way to the stream. He needed to gather a fair amount of water, he had some water jars to fill up and all of his water skins. But that was after he had boiled it to kill off anything in the water, which meant that out of 10 buckets they might get 7 or possibly 8 if they were lucky. He also needed water for his crops as well, and hauling buckets was time consuming work. Hence the water tower and irrigation system he had been building, which was also time consuming.

Max wandered into his shed and grabbed a cauldron that he could use, it was easier to fill up and it held more water. He could also leave it to boil as it took that long to heat up, but he wasn't too concerned about how long it would take to heat up.

He still had plenty of digging to do.

Lots and lots of it, if his hunch was correct and he was hoping that he wasn't. Walking to the river, filling the buckets and walking back took roughly 10 minutes each time, normally by the time he was half way through his body would start to protest. His back, shoulders and legs mainly, but whatever the Force had done, had undone something. The years of long hours, extreme manual labour and horrendous weather had meant that his joints had taken a pounding and even for him it caused problems. He also should have healed himself, but until now he hadn't believed that it had been a problem, painful most certainly but not a problem.

Hindsight was a bitch.

But he had learned his lesson, he was going to do healing sessions every week just to be on the safe side. He wasn't going to allow his health to slip, not like he had been, he couldn't afford to let anything slip. Pouring the last of the water into the cauldron he lifted the cauldron onto the fire, with that job done he wandered back over to the hole.

One way or another he was going to get this done.

* * *

By the time it was midday he had dug a hole of 18 feet, boiled water for drinking, fed the Raptor pack, butchered an animal and watered his crops. He had even fixed his Refining Forge, the old damaged stones had been replaced. He had checked on Obi-Wan a few more times and each time he was able to get the teen to drink some water, but that had been it. As far as Max was concerned it was better than nothing, but there was an idea that he could use. Which meant that he needed to get his mortar and pestle, and a lot of Mejoberries. Not only were they good for taming they were also rich in vitamins, if he could mush up enough of them then he could turn them into juice. Which would be far better than water for Obi-Wan, especially if Obi-Wan was unable to eat solid food.

The hole that he had been doing was put on the back burner, his temper had begun to fray. He had dug 18 feet and there was still nothing but clay, so he had stepped away from it and had moved onto other jobs. It was very tempting to use his abilities, so very tempting. If he had no other choice then he would, Max scowled what sort of message was he sending Obi-Wan?

He wanted Obi-Wan to be comfortable with using his ability, he didn't want Obi-Wan to feel ashamed of what he was. He wanted Obi-Wan to be comfortable with who and what he was, which meant that he had to put his own reservations behind him. He was the one with the problems, he was the one who would only use his abilities if he had no choice. Max knew where it stemmed from, he had seen his uncle get lazy and spoiled. That was when he started to use his abilities less and less, not wanting to turn into his uncle. If there was a being that he hated it was his uncle, the man was a brute. Using his abilities to get whatever or whoever he wanted, sitting on his settee clicking his fingers.

It had been a promise that he had kept for a very long time, but perhaps it was time to break it.

Walking over to the hole, he stared at it, it was time to stop pussyfooting around. Gathering his power he clicked his fingers, the clay in the hole began to change into Loam a much more suitable soil for building on. His fingers tingled as his power coursed through them, the clay that he had dug out changed to Loam as well. Another click had the base of the hole turning to stone, another had the dugout Loam returning back to the hole. He formed a tight fist with his hand and the Loam turned into stone, a tired smile tugged at his lips there was the foundation done. He was cheating and he knew it, but he had decided that it was time to stop hiding. He wasn't going to become his uncle and he knew that now.

He felt lighter as if something had been lifted from him, he had spent years living in fear that he would turn into his uncle. But he knew that it would take a lot more than that for him to completely change, it would take more than a few actions for him to change. Waving his hand at the pile of collected stone, it began to change its shape. Each piece of shaped stone stacked itself, soon he had stacks if shaped stone. A job that should have taken him days if not weeks to do, had taken him a matter of moments. He could see how some got addicted to such power, it was so easy. A quick snap of fingers and the job was done.

The stone had been shaped and stacked into neat piles, all he needed to do was to make a start on the walls. He needed wood for the door and a lot of sand to make glass for the windows, but he knew that he didn't have to do everything by hand. 

But that was later, right now he had a teen to check on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max is the best gift giver ever according to Obi-Wan, there is also bonding being done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in a day?
> 
> Holy hell, that being said this won't happen all the time, it is over 10,000 words typed and edited.
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BJEzutGDAtF/
> 
> Link for the braid that Obi-Wan does.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

It took a week for Obi-Wan to fully recover. The teen was more than excited to leave the house after being cooped up all the time with nothing to do. Boredom had been eating at him for a while because of the lack of training. 

Jade and Onyx had kept him company for a few days before they disappeared for a day. Then Obi-Wan had to deal with an overprotective Raptor pack, who had made it their mission to feed him of all things.

Almost every day they brought back a kill for him. Hunter was always excited to see him and Obi-Wan found that he liked the juvenile Raptor best. In contrast, the Argentavis had yet to make a reappearance, but he wasn't all that worried because he had heard Max muttering as he came and went from the house. Max's muttering hadn't seemed concerned so Obi-Wan did his best to keep his concern at bay as well.

There was also a lot of noise coming from the side of the house currently however. There was usually some kind of noise going on around outside, but this was newer and not something Obi-Wan could identify. He was rather excited by it, however, hoping to discover whatever happened to be hiding under the plain white cover. Whatever it was it had Max excited and giddy, so it couldn't be a bad thing.

Obi-Wan had watched as the cover had gotten higher and higher over the past few days. He had even tried to take a peak but he had been stopped at every turn and couldn't even make it out of the house.

He had decided that he was going to make breakfast for a change today though, he was far too tired of doing nothing at all. Normally it was Max who would make breakfast but he had been working since dawn and Obi-Wan was desperate to do something. As soon as the sun had risen Max had disappeared, and Obi-Wan was slightly worried about how many hours the other was putting in. But the results couldn't be denied: two new kennels had been created for Jade and Onyx, the Dodo pen now had a small house for them to go in when the weather got bad, and there was also a mountain of dried firewood for them to use in winter. There had even been several compost bins made as well as the originals being moved further towards their little farm. With the amount of animals they had, the bins had filled up rather quickly.

Obi-Wan climbed into the Dodo pen with an egg basket. He checked the ground as he went, picking up any eggs that he could find. One of the Dodos squawked when it saw him but he just gently moved it out of the way. One of the Dodos was repeatedly walking into one of the posts, and Obi-Wan suppressed a laugh at the sight of it. Obi-Wan continued to collect eggs, tossing a couple towards Onyx who happily ate them.

Ever since Onyx and Max had fought Onyx had changed slightly; he was more wary around Obi-Wan and it upset him. Obi-Wan missed the boisterous Onyx, the way he would run around at all hours. Or when he would chase Jade through the farm area, instead he had this more sedated Sabertooth who would merely watch from a distance.

Obi-Wan climbed out of the pen and patted Jade and Onyx as he walked past. He sat next to the fireplace and grabbed the flint that was next to it starting it up. Once the fire was burning properly he placed a pan onto the fire. Obi-Wan cracked some eggs into a bowl and began to mix them, he then grabbed some spinach and tore it into tiny parts. Max had been meaning to replace the old chopping board but he hadn't gotten around to it, instead he had been spending all his time on his secret project. Throwing the spinach into the egg mix, he gave it a rough mix before he poured it into the pan. He was most likely doing it incorrectly but he didn't care, all he cared about if it was edible or not.

When he was sure that it was cooked he grabbed a plate and attempted to serve it up, frowning when it broke in half.

"Fuck." The curse fell half dejectedly and half furiously from his lips as he stared at the broken omelette, he had thought that for once, just once it would stay whole.

"That doesn't sound good." Obi-Wan turned around and found Max smiling at him.

"It broke, again." He would deny that he was pouting about it if asked.

"Budge over and watch." Max sat on the ground and gently took the pan off Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan moved away slightly and watched as Max added some fat to the pan and cracked three eggs into a bowl. Once the fat was starting to smoke he poured the mix into the pan. 

"Tear up the spinach for me." Obi-Wan happily began to tear up the spinach as Max looked after the omelette, eager to learn.

Max worked quickly and used a wooden spoon to draw in the sides of the eggs to the centre, incorporating the fat that was in the pan. He gently shook the pan to redistribute the egg to the edges.

"Spinach." Obi-Wan passed over the spinach, obeying the simple command. 

Max spinkled the spinach over the omelette and then folded it over, Obi-Wan watched as Max plated it up, he glared darkly at the folded omelette. It wasn't fair at all, since his omelettes never folded correctly. 

"Eat and then I have a surprise for you." Obi-Wan eyed Max suspiciously, surprises had never been a good thing for him.

"You'll like it I promise." The bond between them hummed and Obi-Wan could detect no deceit from him. Obi-Wan constantly checked Max for any sign of deceit despite the fact that they had a bond with each other not quite willing to trust it.

But Max didn't discourage him from doing it, instead he encouraged Obi-Wan to double check and make himself comfortable with what the bond told him. If they came into contact with the Tribes then Obi-Wan would need a way to tell if they were lying or not and be absolutely sure about it. It would also make it hard for people to try and pull one over on him if he didn't just rely on bonds to tell him the truth. They were liable to meet up with other Tribes eventually, especially when they found out just who had raised him. 

Max had warned him that a lot of people would try and con him; that the problems that they had with Max would transfer to him eventually. But they also had allies as well, not many but there were some who would stand with them so Obi-Wan shouldn't spend all of his time worrying.

Obi-Wan was eager to meet those allies, but that was for later when he was better and able to handle both more stress and more physical activity. He was eating more and sleeping better on a good day and he even spoke to Max once a day whether or not the other man was busy. Max would always make time for him and he wasn't used to it, but he would get used to it in time. He hoped.

"All done?" Obi-Wan looked at his empty plate and shook his head.

"Can I have seconds?" Obi-Wan wasn't used to asking for second helpings and the nervousness in his voice reflected that.

"Omelette again or something different?" Max was already moving the pan back onto the fire, seemingly having absolutely no issue with Obi-Wan's request. It let Obi-Wan release the near terrified breath he'd been holding in.

"Something different." He was unsure what he was going to get but he knew he would enjoy it, and he also wanted to test Max a bit. He felt bad about it sometimes, but he couldn't help himself. He needed to know how far Max's kindness went.

Eggs, bacon, and a couple slices of bread were thrown into the pan together. Max flipped over the bread after a couple of minutes, seemingly thinking absolutely nothing of making a different dish for Obi-Wan.

"Slice some tomatoes for me kiddo." Obi-Wan grabbed a knife and the bowl that was filled with tomatoes, he grabbed a plate and began to cut a couple up. His mind wandered towards how incredible it was that Max seemed to care.

Max began to plate up the sandwich, the bacon was placed on the bottom before he put the egg on top. Reaching over he grabbed a few slices of tomato and then finished the sandwich off, he passed the plate over to Obi-Wan.

"Enjoy your sandwich while I enjoy my tea and tomatoes." Obi-Wan pulled a face at Max who was quite happily eating the sliced tomato. Honestly, sometimes Obi-Wan couldn't understand that man at all.

"Take your time kiddo your surprise will still be there." While it didn't sound ominous it sent a shiver down Obi-Wan's spine. 

Obi-Wan bit into the sandwich and enjoyed the taste of the bacon and egg combining, the tomato cut through the saltiness keeping it from being too savory for him. Obi-Wan continued to eat his sandwich as Max made a second cup of tea and was toasting a slice of bread in the flames. Obi-Wan finished his sandwich and then drank his lukewarm tea, wincing a bit at the lack of heat but enjoying it all the same. He had gotten used to the taste if citronal, while it was bitter he found that he could lessen its strength with a dollop of honey.

He had a sweet tooth and he knew it, but he also knew about moderation and was careful about how much he indulged himself. That and there wasn't a dentist anywhere and he really didn't want to deal with rotten teeth. Oaky, so maybe the teeth were the real factor in his self control, but whatever worked right?

Max had shown him a couple of tricks with stimberry and tintoberry which were helpful. Stimberry could be used as a toothpaste when mashed enough and tintoberry mixed with water made an antibacterial and anti inflammatory, which helped a lot. The tricks that Max had taught him with water healing also helped him. However it was better to be safe than sorry, at least that was his opinion.

"All done?" Max smiled at him as Obi-Wan nodded his head.

"Come on then." Obi-Wan followed Max as he led him towards the covered part of the house.

"Ready?" Obi-Wan nodded his head, while he was apprehensive, he knew that he wouldn’t get harmed.

Max grabbed hold of the fabric and pulled it down, Obi-Wan looked at the added room to the house. It was two floors high.

"There is a ground floor, a bathroom with a working shower or bath. Whichever you prefer, there is a storage room for you. The second floor has a bedroom and there are two extra rooms up there that you can use however you want." Max gestured for Obi-Wan to follow him, the teen was numb as he did so.

This was far more than what he had ever expected, he had thought that he would get a small one room similar to Max's, not this. This was incredible.

"This is your kitchen area, see there is already some preserving bins in here for you, all you need to do is add spark powder when you want to use them. Follow me." Max gently tugged Obi-Wan along, his free hand wildly moving through the air. Obi-Wan followed more through shock than obedience.

"Here is the bedroom, a nice big double bed for you. A chest of draws for your clothes, Obi-Wan? Kiddo what's wrong?" Max looked at him with such concern that he couldn't help but cry harder.

"Oh kiddo, come here." Obi-Wan found himself surrounded as he sunk into the embrace, not having noticed the tears on his cheeks.

He sobbed as Max rubbed his back. He didn't say anything as Obi-Wan continued to sob into his shoulder, the sobs shaking his body as he clung to Max like a man drowning at sea. 

Max hummed as Obi-Wan clung to him, his hands continued to rub up and down Obi-Wan's back. Obi-Wan hiccupped as he tried to stop his tears, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never received anything like this, the most he had got before had been a rock. He had treasured it, but it hadn't come with him. He hoped that it was giving Qui-Gon some comfort. It had helped him in his darkest times, but maybe it was time to let that go.

He didn’t need it anymore, with Max as his rock now.

"I didn't realise that I was such a terrible gift giver." Obi-Wan hiccupped and then laughed slightly.

"It's not that, it's brilliant." He snuggled into the warmth that was Max, more appreciative of it than he had been of anything else before

"Then what is it kiddo?" Max was careful with his nails as he ran his fingers through Obi-Wan's growing hair.

"Before this, the most I have ever been given or had was a rock." The truth hurt no matter what the situation was, but he was used to pain and being hurt. This kindness was so much more devastating.

"Oh kiddo, remember what I told you? I may not have much in terms of wealth but what I do have? It's yours." Obi-Wan gripped Max tighter; this man shouldn't be real. Yet here he was hugging Obi-Wan of all people. Obi-Wan couldn't be more grateful if he tried.

"Come on then, explore the rest of it?" Obi-Wan nodded his head as Max led him to another room.

"This could be a nursery if you want it to be, or it could be a library if you wanted." Max led him to another room, it was slightly smaller than the main bedroom.

Obi-Wan marvelled at the rooms that he was led into, he could easily picture a handmade cot in the centre of the room, a small toy chest in the left corner. That was if he ever chose a partner, or had a child. There was adoption but that was a long way off, Obi-Wan didn't know if he liked male or female, he could even like both. He still had plenty of time to find out, it wasn't as if he was in a rush. Obi-Wan followed Max through the rooms as he chatted excitedly about what each room could be used for, Obi-Wan already had access to a forge, smithy and an alchemy table. Which was fascinating, alchemy had been forbidden by the Jedi and for a very good reason. 

Yet here he was learning it, he wasn't turning items to gold or unravelling the secrets of the Force. He was only learning the basics of it, but what he had learned had been mind blowing. So far he had watched as one object had been transmuted into another, had seen an object get imbued with elemental powers and had watched as a sword went from a flimsy piece of rusted metal, to a weapon of sheer beauty and lethality. 

It was humbling to see such things, skills and arts that had been lost to time revived and in action. At the moment he was changing stone into some sort of gem, while they were pretty but they weren't worth anything. It wasn't as if he could use them for anything either, so he just collected them. Like pretty rocks. His shelf was full of them, all different colours and sizes but he enjoyed the blue and red ones the most. 

Obi-Wan was still sleeping in Max's bed, part of the reason was due to the lack of furs on his bed and the other part was security. He liked knowing that Max was there, that if he rolled over he could cuddle into the other. Maybe it was childish but after what he had been through Obi-Wan thought that being childish over this was mild compared to other things, and so what if he was being childish over this?

It wasn't as if he was harming anyone.

Obi-Wan watched as Max walked to the house, a basket in his hands. He could tell even from this distance that it was filled with fish that needed to be gutted before they could go in the smokehouse, Max was doing a lot of stockpiling for the upcoming winter. He was also building up the supply of spark powder that was needed to keep the preserving bins running, but that took time. Crushing stone and flint together to create a fine orange powder, there were no cheats or shortcuts, it had to be done by hand. It had the habit of exploding when infused with power, as Obi-Wan had found out. He had been lucky that Max had been there otherwise he would have been blown straight through the door, instead Max had been able to catch him with his vines.

That was something that he noticed Max used his abilities more, it wasn't showing off or flaunting what he had, he taught Obi-Wan ways to control the Force that hadn't been thought of in the temple. His control over the Force had improved by leaps and bounds, he was now able to separate water into individual droplets and keep them suspended in the air before returning them back to their normal state. He did that three times a day along with his meditation, every morning and evening he would meditate for a couple of hours. Normally it would be to try and reflect on his mistakes during the day, except he didn't need to. Max had no problem with mistakes.

"How else do we learn? Are you going to do it again? No, then you have learned your lesson, you don't need me to harp on at you about it."

That had been the end of the talk, it hadn't been brought up again. It was refreshing in ways that he hadn't known about, Obi-Wan was enjoying the life that was being carved out for him. He had a routine to follow and Max would take time to teach him different things, each day was something new and exciting.

Tomorrow he was going to learn how to use the forge and how to craft things at the armour bench, Obi-Wan was looking forward to making his own sword. While he could use a bow however he preferred more melee weapons, which given his training with a lightsaber it was understandable. He missed his lightsaber but it didn't have a place in his new life, if it broke he wouldn't be able to repair it.

So in a way he was glad that it hadn't come with him, at least he knew it was safe and that was some small comfort to him.

"Ready to go?" Obi-Wan excitedly nodded his head, today he would be going on a run with the Raptor pack. 

It would be the first big thing that he would be doing since he had arrived, he had watched as the Raptors came and went. Each time he watched them he wondered where they went, he had seen Max disappear with them a few times only to return a while later. But Max was rarely if ever gone for a long time, if he did disappear for more than an hour or two then both Jade and Onyx were left with him along with Hunter.

Obi-Wan watched as he put a saddle on the Alpha female, Obi-Wan had yet to learn all of their names the only one he knew was Hunter.

"Obi-Wan this lovely lady is the Alpha also known as Lucky, she got her name because after we fought we were both lucky to be alive." Lucky headbutted Max in the gut, despite how hard she headbutted him Max barely moved.

"You'll be riding with me, normally a Raptor can only carry one person. But with how small we both are, Lucky will be able to carry both of us easily. Now up you go." Max grabbed Obi-Wan and lifted him onto the saddle, Lucky didn't even move as Max got Obi-Wan into position.

"Don't move." Max used his hands to lift him up onto the saddle, once he was sitting behind Obi-Wan he gently dug his heels into Lucky's side.

"Tight hold kiddo." Obi-Wan clutched at the arm that was wrapped around his middle, Max used his free hand to grab the reins.

Lucky took off running and Obi-Wan whooped with laughter as the air belted against his face, he felt Max's chest rumble as Max laughed along with him. 

"Lucky pick up the pace!" Lucky gave her strange bark like sound as she began to run faster, the rest of the pack picked up the pace.

The trees blurred past them, the pack began to go in different directions before coming back to run with Lucky. The female alpha kept her pace until they got to a clearing, Lucky slowed down before stopping. Max patted her on the side, he unwound his arm from Obi-Wan and swung his legs over before jumping off. He grabbed hold of Obi-Wan and helped him to climb down, Obi-Wan felt wobbly as he stood in the clearing. Max carefully removed the saddle and Lucky disappeared into the trees with the rest of the pack, Max slung the saddle over his shoulders before walking to a low tree branch and putting the saddle on it.

"Come on, there is something that I want to show you." Once he had feeling back in his legs Obi-Wan followed Max.

The clearing was filled with all sorts of flowers, each one of them starting to bloom under the rays of the sun. Obi-Wan looked around at all of the flowers and trees, everything was so new to him and he couldn't help the look of awe and wonder on his face as he looked at everything.

"Almost there, you'll like this I promise you." Considering that his last gift had been his own two floors added to the house, Obi-Wan wondered what Max had up his sleeve so to speak.

"Just up this hill kiddo." Obi-Wan hummed as he followed Max, he felt his breath catch as he reached the top of the hill.

There nestled in between some trees surrounded by flowers was a hot spring, steam curled in the air.

"Welcome to the hidden springs, this is one of three hot springs on the Island and I know where they all are." Max was a tiny bit smug about that, after all he had known for years where they were and he hadn't told anyone.

Until now.

He was greatly enjoying teaching Obi-Wan everything he knew, the teen was a quick study once he had been shown how to do something and it only took him a few attempts to get it right. Max began to strip off, unconcerned about his body, the scars were nothing new to him.

Obi-Wan gaped at the tattoos that decorated Max's hips, leg and arms, he knew that Max had scars he had seen and felt some of them. But he hadn't known about the tattoos, there was some sort of curved sword going down the length of his leg, the black colour of the metal contrasted greatly against the white handle. On his hip he had a whip, it had sharp spikes all along the length of it. Two daggers went up Max's forearms, the tips of the blades just touching his wrists. 

"Obi-Wan?" He blinked and looked at Max who was staring at him with amusement.

"When did you get them?" The fact that he had just blurted it out wasn't his best move. He had no idea what had possessed him to do it either.

"Ah." Max suddenly looked very uncomfortable and Obi-Wan felt guilty.

"You don't have to tell me." Obi-Wan could feel how uncomfortable he was through the bond.

"No, it's not that. It's just I haven't thought about it in a very long time." Max sat on the side of the hot spring, a faraway look in his eyes.

Obi-Wan sunk into the hot water and found himself moaning as he felt all his aches and pains leave his body, he hadn't realised just how much pain he had been in until now.

"I am the child of a political marriage, neither of my parents wanted me and my mother's side of the family hated me. My father's side had a great deal of indifference for me, my immediate family made it their mission to remind me that no one actually wanted me. My uncle was a brute of a man who would use his abilities to bully others, he would lay on his settee and click his fingers." Max paused as he rubbed his hands up and down his arms, there was a haunted look in his eyes.

"I had just turned 21 when I got forcefully dragged to an inker, that is a magical version of a tattooist. They specialise in weapon tattoos, I was held down by 15 members of the people who were supposed to be my family as I was carved up and had special ink poured into my bleeding skin." Obi-Wan looked absolutely horrified, he looked at the tattoos and was upset that they looked so pretty.

"But they have saved my life more times than I care to count, how I got them is something that haunted me for a long time." Obi-Wan moved closer to Max, he wanted to comfort him somehow but he didn't know how to.

Max began to take out the simple braid that he had in his hair normally in, Obi-Wan ran his fingers through the hair. It took a lot of care and more often than not it was just kept in a plait, Obi-Wan was slightly jealous of how long it was. He had cut off his Padawan braid, he had no need for it now and all it was a painful reminder. So he had cut it off and then burned it, Max had held him as he had cried.

All he had wanted to be was a Jedi Knight and help people.

He wouldn't get to do that now, but he had accepted it and he knew that it most likely wouldn't have happened. Qui-Gon would have found someone else, someone who he would want to train and he would have been cast out. It might have been cruel to think such things, but Qui-Gon had been forced to accept him. Yoda had tried to force the pair of them together, only for it to backfire time and time again.

Obi-Wan was positive that Qui-Gon despised him.

But he was fine with that, he couldn't force people to like or accept him. He also knew that he needed to stop thinking about the past, all it was doing was keeping his wounds from healing properly.

It was time for him to heal.

A splash of water against his face had him blinking in shock, he turned and looked at Max who was ready to splash more water at him.

"No deep thoughts in the springs." With that Max splashed him again, Obi-Wan decided that he was going to retaliate.

"That isn't fair!" Obi-Wan splashed Max and threw himself at Max, who laughed and caught him around the waist.

"Caught you." Max then dunked Obi-Wan under the water before Obi-Wan splashed him.

The pair of them continued to play fight with each other, both of them gasping and laughing when the Raptor pack returned. Lucky didn't look amused when she spotted them.

"Easy old girl, we were just playing." Lucky still didn't look pleased, Hunter made a strange chirping sound before diving into the hot spring with them.

"Hunter!" The dual exclamations echoed slightly.

The juvenile Raptor looked at them, he almost seemed smug and proud over what he had done, the duo glared at Hunter who was attempting to climb out of the hot spring. Max grabbed hold of Hunter's tail and dragged him back into the hot spring, Obi-Wan grinned as Hunter fell backwards into the hot spring. Hunter broke the surface looking slightly murderous, a deep rumble emanating from Max's chest and a sharp bark like sound from Lucky had him submitting. Eventually Hunter climbed out of the hot spring shaking as he went, Max and Obi-Wan sniggered as Hunter looked like he had been put through the ringer, his feathers stuck to him. A displeased hiss left the juvenile Raptor as he tried to get dry.

"Come on then, let's get out and head back home." Max began to climb out of the hot spring, Obi-Wan quickly followed.

Max began to wring the excess water out of his hair, Obi-Wan watched transfixed as Max began to plait his hair.

"Need help?" Obi-Wan itched to get his hands on the hair.

"If you want to." The ball had been passed to Obi-Wan and it was up to him.

Obi-Wan had been pushing Max in little ways, trying to see where the limits were. Instead of getting annoyed and irritated with him, he found a man with a wealth of patience, kindness and understanding. Obi-Wan was grateful for it but it also upset him at the same time, because why?

Why had it taken a stranger to do what his family should have done.

"I know how to do a Lattice braid, it's a bit more fancier than a normal three strand braid." Obi-Wan patted a nearby rock and gestured for Max to sit down in front of him.

Max was bemused as he threw a blanket onto the ground and sat in the lotus position on it, Obi-Wan combed his fingers through the hair. 

"I did this for Master Qui-Gon once when we were on a mission to the outer rim, it was tradition for those of a higher rank to braid their hair in intricate designs. He couldn't braid his own hair, it was too long for him to do so. So I studied how to do it, it took months of practice. Eventually when the day of the meal came I spent hours braiding his hair, by the time I had finished my knees had locked and my wrists hurt." Obi-Wan continued to separate the hair, a smile played on his lips as he thought about the meal, it was a good, happy memory.

"Hmmm, sounds like a nice memory." Max's eyes were slipping closed as Obi-Wan began to braid his hair.

"It was." Fingers threaded through the hair as he tightened the braid.

Max sighed and tilted his head further back as Obi-Wan tightened the braid, it had been an incredibly long time since anyone had done something like this for him. A deep rumble left his chest subconsciously as he relaxed, fingers got caught in a knot and Obi-Wan began to untangle it. Obi-Wan watched as Max's eyes slipped close, the deep rumble from his chest picked up in sound. It was strange knowing that there was a way to know that Max was genuinely happy, but from he knew about the animal that Max could turn into, they couldn't purr.

Yet Max made something that was similar to a purr.

"You are enjoying this." The smile on his face wasn't being repressed in the slightest.

"Indeed I am, this is really relaxing." Mqx opened his eyes slightly, from what Obi-Wan could see, his pupils were blown wide.

The sun was warm and pleasant as Obi-Wan continued to braid Max's hair, both of them enjoying the bonding experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments down below please and see you next update. Hope you enjoyed it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max opens up to Obi-Wan and a group of old friends makes an appearance. There is a name change in the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember all that research that got mentioned? It makes an appearance in this chapter.
> 
> Bronwen  
> Origin: Welsh  
> Meaning: Fair and blessed, pure heart  
> Alternative Spellings & Variations: Bronwyn (technically masculine due to-wyn ending), Branwen.
> 
> Aimi, love beauty, Female, Japanese.
> 
> Akihiro, bright scholar, Male, Japanese.
> 
> Annaisha, helpful guide to others, Female, Japanese.
> 
> Arakan, worthy one; hero, Male, Japanese.
> 
> Atsushi, cordial; industrious, Male, Japanese.
> 
> Took a good amount of time to find decent names for them, not just name picking either finding ones that had decent meaning was hard as hell. So there is the meanings of the names that make an appearance, this chapter has been split in two mainly because of the size of it. Part two will make an appearance later, once it has been double checked.
> 
> Enjoy.

The first signs of winter had caused a flurry of activity, Max had taken to stockpiling everything that he was able to. The farm had died off and they had barely been able to gather the last harvest before the frost descended, Max had taken it in stride. Merely adding extra jobs to his already long list, Obi-Wan had taken to creating clothing for them, his stitches were big and the spacing between them was far too wide but it was practice for him. Obi-Wan was proud of his creations, he hadn't made his own clothing before, he had done patch jobs and fixed a few seams but nothing on this scale before.

The smokehouse was completely full, the cold storage shed was completely empty, all of the carcasses had been butchered and put into the smokehouse. The firewood pile had tripled in size, Max had turned the excess gathered berries into jam which he then set to one side. 

"Why exactly are you doing all this?" Obi-Wan had just finished sewing a set of gloves for himself.

"It's trading goods, while my main trade is alcohol. I also trade off jams and fabric as well, while they don't bring in as much as the alcohol does. It will still be enough to barter for anything that we need." Max finished cutting up some smoked fish on the new chopping board.

"Cut up some rockarrot and spinach for me." Obi-Wan grabbed a knife and raided the vegetable bowl on the counter.

"When will they come?" Obi-Wan diced up the rockarrot into thin strips, it had taken some time but he eventually got the hang of it.

"A week, maybe two before they are due, I'm hoping that it's Akihiro, Aimi and their son. Who I have yet to learn the name of, last I heard they had been planning for another child. I still remember the first time I met their son, it was eventful. They had just turned up one day with a squealing and crying bundle with them, they stayed with me for a couple of days before they headed home. Aimi had gone into labour a whole month early while they were making their way to visit her family. That was how we met." Max had a soft smile on his face that made him look younger.

"How come?" Obi-Wan began to put the spinach into a pan of boiling water.

"There are only three groups that won't rip us off, the samurai, the ninjas and the trappers. Everyone else either dislikes or hates my guts, the main reason is I refuse to join any of the Tribes. Another part of it is, I refuse to bow on a bent knee to them. I treat them all the same and offer them no discounts." Max flipped the fish in the pan over, he reached above him and grabbed some plates and cups.

"So because you wouldn't let them bully you, they either dislike or hate you." Obi-Wan didn't know whether to be shocked or horrified.

"There are a couple of people that I have semi decent contact with and by that I mean they don't try to kill me on sight." Obi-Wan choked in his spit at the causal statement.

"The Tribes don't take refusal very well, almost a third of them have a kill on sight if I'm spotted." Max was far too cheerful about that.

"So the Tribes will take offence to me as well, but I already knew that. You told me that." This was information that he knew, Max had already told him that any problems that the Tribes had with Max would pass onto him.

"True, but now you know the why and sometimes that is far more important to know the why." Max plated up the fish while Obi-Wan passed over the pan of boiled spinach.

"True, but I thought that it might have been more serious. Not over the fact you told them no." Obi-Wan grabbed two forks and walked over to the table.

"All the Tribes at the time wanted me to join them, they believed that with me joining them, they could use me as a weapon against their enemies. They had found out about my abilities by accident, they had some scouts following me to see if I had potential. Then when I said no, they tried to force the issue. Believing that if they subdued me, then they could force my obedience. You can imagine how I reacted." Max pushed his food around on his plate, his mind was faraway.

"Well I'm glad that they failed." Obi-Wan reached over and grabbed hold of Max's free hand.

"Because if they had succeeded then I never would have met you." Obi-Wan squeezed Max's hand, Max squeezed back.

"Eat your food kiddo, I'm going to make another cup of tea." Max stood up from the table, his plate of food was mostly untouched.

Obi-Wan began to eat his food with a distracted air, he had been given a lot of information and he wasn't sure where to begin in terms of understanding it. He had known that Max had a history with the Tribes and he knew that he didn't like them, but he wouldn't have guessed it was because of something like this. Obi-Wan was no fool, he knew that there were dark sides to a lot of things, he had seen that when he had travelled through the galaxy. But it hadn't hit this close to him, until now and he didn't know how to feel about it. But what could he do?

He couldn't time travel, he couldn't undo the past and even if he could do any of that would he?

Max was the person who he was currently because of what he had been through, Max had undergone trials that no normal being would be able to survive. Yet he had come out a kind, considerate, compassionate man, Obi-Wan was happy and grateful that he was under the guidance of such a man. Perhaps Max had always been like this or maybe he had kept it hidden until he had found the right person to show it to, truth was it didn't matter to Obi-Wan.

It was in the past, just like his life at the temple was in the past.

It had helped to shape them, it helped to guide them. 

But those chapters of their lives were over, Obi-Wan was still coming to terms with it. But Max had accepted it years ago, and maybe Max could teach him how to move past it. It was easy enough saying that he was going to put it behind him, but things would constantly remind him of his time at the temple. It was frustrating and annoying and he wanted it to stop.

"Max?" Obi-Wan watched as Max put his cup on the table.

"Yes kiddo?" Max was looking at him with a knowing look in his eyes.

"How did you let it go? How did you leave behind you?" He desperately wanted to know the answer.

"That is complicated, exceedingly so, after it had happened for years I was angry, bitter and depressed. I had swore as a young man that I would never become like my uncle, yet they had tried to force my hand, they tried to force me into becoming something worse than him. I resented them. They had almost succeeded in doing what my family failed to do, but the thing that I felt the most was hurt. How could they do this to another living being?" Max took a drink of his tea, he stared into the brown water.

"It took time, a lot of it. For me it was a constant reminder that I almost fell, I almost became what I despised the most. Everytime I did something or saw something it reminded me and it made me hurt, angry, bitter and depressed all over again. It was a never ending cycle and I couldn't see a way out of it, until I began to meet new people and they helped me. They showed that while the first step of the healing process was the most painful, I didn’t have to make it alone." Max placed his half drank tea to one side and reached out to Obi-Wan.

"The first step is the hardest, so stop beating yourself up. You will think about your old home and family, and you will miss them. But that is normal." Obi-Wan blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"It is going to take time but you will get there in the end, don't force yourself to try and heal. You can't, just take it one step and one day at a time." Max let go of Obi-Wan's hand so that he could stand up and walk around the table, once he had reached the teen he hugged him.

Obi-Wan sunk into the hug, at first he had been wary and unsure about such affection. But now he accepted it, he enjoyed it and he wasn't going to give it up. Not now that he had been given a taste of unconditional love and acceptance, why couldn't.

Obi-Wan violently squashed the thought, he had swore to himself that he was leaving the past in the past. He wanted to take that first step forwards, but everytime he tried it felt as if he was taking two steps back. He was frustrated with himself, why couldn't he do this one thing?

He wanted to let them go, he really did. He just wasn't able to.

What did that say about him?

A flick to his forehead had him shaking his head, he glared at Max who didn't look guilty at all.

"Stop over thinking it, it will happen just be patient with yourself. You are far too hard on yourself." Obi-Wan couldn't deny it, he had always held himself to a higher standard.

Max continued to stare at him until he nodded his head, he didn't like it. But he accepted the fact that he couldn't force himself to heal quicker, Max smiled at him as the two of them went back to their food. It was cold but neither of them were going to complain about it, they had both reached a milestone with each other.

* * *

The next two weeks past in a blurr, one minute they had been talking in the kitchen about healing, the next there was two feet of snow. The Dodos had been put into their small house, it was enough to keep them warm and dry but it wasn't clear if it would survive the heavy snowfall. There had been no sign of any traders or any sign of life other than them, the Raptors had stopped bringing back kills. Onyx and Jade had both bulked up, their fur was far thicker than anything that Obi-Wan had seen before.

The Argentavis had yet to make a reappearance at all, most likely it had bunkered down somewhere or it had migrated to a warmer area. Which was possible as the redwood region only ever got a few inches of snow at best, but that was on the other side of the island. It was too late for them to try and make their way there, they would get caught in the freeze. The freeze and the breakup were the two most dangerous times of the year, the freeze because the ice was just starting to form on lakes and rivers. The breakup because that was when everything was beginning to thaw, if they got caught in either of them it would be trouble for them.

They could either end up catching hypothermia and dying, going through the ice on a partially frozen lake or river and drowning. Or if their supplies ran out they could end up starving to death, the same problems could occur during breakup as well. It wasn't worth the risk.

So they stockpiled what they could do, they made sure that they had enough food to see them for two to three months. Fur, hide and feathers had been gathered since autumn, Max had made blankets, pillows and anything else that they would need extra of. There was a large pile of firewood in the corner, the fire was topped up every hour or so, just so that it wouldn't get too low. Otherwise the house would get too cold and it could take days to get it warm again, that was if they could get it warm again.

It wasn't a risk that Max was going to take, not when the temperatures could get to minus 50 or 60 degrees. Staying out in temperatures like that for extended periods of time was not advisable at all, even if they spent a short period of time outside they still needed a warm place, a safe place.

Obi-Wan had been making a scarf or rather he had been attempting to make one, but Ovis wool was much more difficult to work with than what he had thought. It tangled and knotted easily and it got dirty very quickly, the only option that he had was to dye it. But his first few attempts at dying had been rather abysmal to say the least, the first attempt at making a scarf had been horrendous, it had been full of holes and patches of dye that didn't take to the wool. Obi-Wan looked at the current attempt at a scarf, the dye had taken to the wool this time. It was a nice deep blue colour, but the scarf itself was full of holes from where he had dropped a stitch. 

But he was making progress, he had managed to get three quarters of it done before he had dropped a stitch. Then it seemed as if he was dropping a stitch almost every time, Max had declared that he was going to keep them and wear them. Max was already wearing the previous attempt at a scarf, it warmed something inside him to see Max wearing the scarf.

"Food." A plate of food was pushed over towards him, Obi-Wan paused and put his knitting down on the table.

"Thank you." Obi-Wan grabbed the plate and began to eat the food.

The roasted savoroot, smoked fish with glazed rockarrot was divine, Max tried to keep their diet varied and they tended to eat a lot of meat and fish. They also had more meals, instead of having three large meals, they had smaller meals more often. Obi-Wan had about 6 or 8 meals a day, he had a large breakfast mainly because a couple of hours later he was hungry again. He also enjoyed the hard candies that Max would make once a week, it was something to help stave off the hunger. It also helped with his cravings for sweet things, so it was a win-win. Providing he remembered to clean his teeth afterwards, Max had made a batch of toothpaste, it should be enough to see them but they wouldn't know until later. When it ran out.

Obi-Wan pushed his empty plate to one side and picked up his knitting again, he was determined to get it done. One way or another.

His control over the Force had come on leaps and bounds, he could summon a ball of Ovis wool without looking at it. Whereas before he would have to look at it and use his hands to summon it, he could also unravel a ball of wool without looking at it. His skill with water healing had come along in strides, he could heal broken bones now. Whereas before he could only heal sprains and bruises, he had also taken to testing his limit of how much he could lift.

He hadn't exhausted himself, which was something that he would have done before. He would have pushed himself well past his limits, but now he didn't, under the watchful eyes of Max he paced himself. Max was a very hands on teacher, he would help Obi-Wan when he stumbled or couldn't quite do something, then Max would step in and show him how to do it. It greatly helped him to learn, having Max next to him going through the same moments as him.

The Katas that he had learned in the temple were still being used, Max was also teaching him a few trucks and moves that he knew. Each morning after he had meditated for an hour he would then practice his Katas, afterwards he would help Max with the jobs. Followed by Max training him for two or three hours, depending on the weather and how many jobs they had managed to get done. It was a routine that he enjoyed, and now he had his knitting and sewing to add to the routine.

"How's it coming?" Max appeared from behind him, his silver and violet eyes glimmered with amusement.

"It's coming along alright, I dropped three stitches again. This time on the same row, which is annoying. Dropping one is bad enough, but three? Annoying." He scowled as he looked at the scarf.

"Well I'm going to wear it anyway." Max patted him on the shoulder before disappearing. 

Obi-Wan shook his head and went back to his knitting, Max was whirling around like a windstorm on Tatooine. It was a wonder that he wasn't exhausted, he only stopped for food, a quick drink and to check on him. Then he was gone, off to do another job or to double check that everything was in order. This time it was the water tank, Max had to heat up the pipes and make sure that they wouldn't freeze. Every day he would go out and check the fires and add more wood to the fires, each pipe had a fire underneath it constantly burning. It was to stop the pipes from freezing and to make sure that they still had water running to the house, it was a fairly recent addition.

Max had helped him to sort out the plumbing for his bathroom, he had kept the bath in the room but he had moved it to another part of the room. There wasn't an indoor toilet and probably wouldn't be one for sometime as it wasn't that high on the priority list, Obi-Wan had been more than willing to move the bath and its pipes. Before patching up the holes, and reinstalling the pipes under the bath. It had taken a few days to get it done, but it had been done in the end.

Obi-Wan still had a few problems when it came to accepting help, but the issue wasn't forced. Rather he was given a chance to see if he could manage it by himself, more often than not Max was waiting, watching. He was never very far away should Obi-Wan need him, then he was there. Obi-Wan glanced down at the scarf and smiled when he noticed that he was almost finished, he hoped that it would be finished in the next hour or so.

That was the idea.

Unfortunately that wasn't going to happen as he ran out of wool before he had a chance to finish it, he didn't have any wool left either and he had nowhere to get any. With a sigh he put the unfinished scarf to one side, it looked like it was going to take some time to get it finished. But that was fine, he still had a pair of gloves to make, and some clothes to fix. Max had torn a hole in his pants, the hole was on his arse not that he really cared. In fact the majority of his pants were filled with holes, a lot of them. 

His trousers on the other hand were patch work, and badly need replacing. Which was what he was doing as part of his winter solstice gift, he knew that he didn't have to and Max had given no indication that Max celebrated any holidays. Even if Max did it wasn't as if he knew what to get the older man, it wasn't as if there was a wish list pinned to the preserving bin. 

Obi-Wan grabbed the thread and fishbone needle that was used for the more delicate repairs, it also took some skill to use it as the needle was fragile. He had broken a few needles by applying too much pressure or strength, thankfully they had a rather large supply of fish bones, it was an annoyance to find the right size bone. But they were easier to find than metal ore, which would then have to be melted down and then forged into a needle. It was a very time consuming process and it wasn't worth all the time and effort for a single needle, not when they could easily make 10 or 15 needles as opposed to a single one.

Threading the needle Obi-Wan grabbed a pair of washed pants and began to repair the split seam, it was a boring job but Obi-Wan enjoyed the repetition, it helped him to focus, he used it as a way to meditate sometimes. The rhythm was easy to get lost in, Max came back in just as he was halfway through repairing the seam.

"Break time, put down the pants and get some food and fresh air." With that the pants that he had been repairing were put on the table and Obi-Wan found himself getting frog marched out of the house.

"We have a beautiful day, some sun, some snow and plenty of fresh air!" With that Obi-Wan was thrown into a nearby snow bank. Obi-Wan shrieked as he went flying through the air, Max cackled as he dived in after Obi-Wan. 

Obi-Wan sat up and threw a handful of snow in Max's general direction as he scrubbed his face, a snowball hit him in the face in retaliation. Obi-Wan spluttered as he looked at Max who was covered head to toe in snow, Max laughed as Obi-Wan threw himself at him. The two of them wrestled in the snow as Jade and Onyx watched on with wary amusement, the Raptor pack made an appearance before they joined in the play fight. Snow flew into the air as they all fought with each other, the Argentavis sat on a nearby tree branch looking at them.

"Yield!"

"Never!"

The two of them wrestled as the Raptors disappeared to do their nightly patrol, Jade and Onyx grabbed ahold of their clothing and began to drag the two of them apart. Jade and Onyx dragged the bickering pair back into the house, the two of them were numb and neither of them could feel their fingers, toes or noses. Obi-Wan and Max found themselves stripped off and sitting on chairs in front of the fireplace with cups if tea in their hands, their fingers and toes tingled as they warmed up.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Wet hair was plastered against a once tanned forehead, silver and violet eyes twinkled in the firelight.

"It was, I really enjoyed it. Thank you." Stormy blue eyes met twinkling silver and violet, a soft smile played on strawberry red lips.

"Good, that is all that counts." Max drained his tea in one go before walking to the chest of draws with a blanket wrapped around him.

Rummaging around through the chest of draws, Max grabbed two bundles of clothes before shuffling back to his chair.

"Dry clothes, get into them quickly. Right now your body is trying to keep the core warm, which means that your limbs will take a while to warm up." A bundle of clothing was stuffed on his lap, Obi-Wan took a sip of his tea.

"Thank you." Obi-Wan put his cup on the floor and stood up with the blanket.

Dropping the blanket to the floor and completely unashamed of his nudity, he began to get dressed, his fingers still numb as he pulled the shirt over his head. The trousers were pulled over his freezing legs, a set of fluffy woollen socks were slipped onto his feet. Once he was covered from head to toe Obi-Wan sat back in front of the fireplace, sitting in his chair he reached for his hopefully still warm tea.

Max had only just managed to put on a pair of socks and trousers when they heard the Raptors snarling and screeching, Max's hand went to his leg and he withdrew his sword.

"Stay here." Obi-Wan watched as Max left the house, half dressed.

He stood there next to the fireplace, fear crawling up his spine as he debated what to do, did he stay or go?

A low whistle was heard and he found himself relaxing slightly, deciding that Max was capable of looking after whatever it was outside he turned his attention to his tea. The door opened and he turned to speak to Max only to find himself looking into a set of dark eyes, he blinked several times.

"Ah, hello?" He was being polite and would continue to do so, until he was given a reason not to be.

"Hello." A rumbling voice, like thunder filled the small space.

"Max darling, you never told us you had a son." A small woman with blonde hair came whirling into the house.

"Leave him alone, I have told you before that you are not entitled to the entire story of my life. If you continue to push you will find yourself removed from my territory, the pack will be more than glad to help." Snarling faces appeared behind Max, the entire Raptor pack looked at the woman who gulped.

"Is this anyway to treat a friend?" Obi-Wan could feel her terror in the Force, she might be putting on a brave face but she couldn't hide from him.

"Marian enough, we have talked about this before." A mountain-like man entered the house, he ducked under the doorframe.

"That isn't fair Alex, he knows loads about us! But all we know about him is his name!" Marian stomped her foot on the ground like a spoilt child.

A shrill whistle pierced the air and the pack appeared, snarling at Marian who took a frightened step backwards, teeth were bared as they took a menacing step forwards.

"Escort Marian off our territory, if she tries to reenter then you can maul her. Don't kill her." The pack circled her, their eyes glowing with malicious intent.

"The Tribes should have enslaved you when they had the chance……" Whatever else she was going to say she was unable to, her head came tumbling to the ground.

"My apologies Max, if I had known what she was really like then I never would have married her." Alex sheathed his blade after he had flicked off the excess blood.

"No apologies between friends, I will admit that she was able to hide how she really felt incredibly well." Max nodded his head at the Raptors and they began to tear into the body.

"It will take sometime for her to recover from that, even when she does come back the trappers will not welcome her. She knew the rules, she knew that breaking them would result in punishment. Her father may be the leader of the hunt Tribe but even he cannot protect her from everything, the rules in regards to you and yours." Alex grabbed a cloth and threw it on the floor, the blood was quickly soaked up.

Alex mopped up the blood off the floor and then threw the unsalvageable cloth into the fire and watched as it burned, a cup of tea was passed to Alex. Who gratefully took it, Obi-Wan watched as Alex drank his tea without wincing once, instead his green eyes were focused on the fire.

"I'm going to help Bronwyn get sorted,I dare not leave him alone for too long." Max left the house, a tired set to his shoulders as he walked.

Obi-Wan moved over to the small stove in the centre of the kitchen, he was intent on making a fresh cup of tea and he had plenty to choose from. They had gotten a large harvest of tea leaves, so he had helped Max to make different flavours of tea.

"Your father must trust your ability to defend yourself." Obi-Wan turned around and found Alex stood behind him, a strange look in his green eyes.

Obi-Wan's first reaction was to deny that Max was his father, but it was the truth. Max was his father in everything but blood, the bond pulsed between them and Obi-Wan felt a pulse of concern from Max, he sent a wave of reassurance back, he looked at Alex. 

"Is that any of your concern?" The amount of sass that was rolling off was surprising to him, he had no idea that he could be this sassy.

"You are a fighter, which is what I would expect of his child." Green eyes glinted in the partially lit room.

Something inside of him released itself.

"Dad is a private person, especially with what the Tribes did to him. I may not be physically intimidating or the most handsome person, but the thing is? I don't give a fuck, my dad is my dad, so what if he isn't the same as everyone else. So what if he could easily kill everyone and everything? We want to be left alone, away from the Tribes, away from people who think that we owe them." Items floated around the room as he tore into Alex, the man just stood there.

Obi-Wan jumped when he heard clapping, standing in the entrance of the house was a small group of rather dangerous looking people each one of them had a sword strapped to their waist, Obi-Wan hadn't heard them opening the door which was worrying by itself.

"Who are you?" The sharpness of his voice did not go unnoticed by them, some of them even smiled at him.

"Well said young one, I am Arakan, this is my brother Atsushi and our sister Annaisha." Dark eyes were warm as the elderly man gestured to each person next to him.

"Obi-Wan." He didn't know these people and while they might be on friendly terms with his dad, they had to prove themselves to him.

"We are part of the samurai Tribe, we came here to trade with your father." Atsushi's voice was like two stones clashing against each other, Obi-Wan found himself looking at the scar that went straight across his throat.

"You are right on time." Max appeared from nowhere causing some of them to jump.

"Tomodachi! Look at you, you don't look a day older than when I last saw you." Annaisha walked forward and hugged Max, who patted her on the back.

"Annaisha-san, you still look beautiful as ever." Annaisha tapped him on the nose with her fan, a playful smile on her lips.

"You are lucky that I like you, otherwise I might take offence to the fact that you have poison on your fan." Max took the fan out of her hand and opened it out, Obi-Wan admired the beautiful fan.

"Annaisha, is one of 13 Elders that rules over the samurai Tribe. She used to be a Geisha in her younger days, she was deadly as she was beautiful." Annaisha smirked, a deadly gleam in her eyes.

"Geisha?" Obi-Wan tilted his head to the side as he looked at Annaisha.

"The term Geisha is usually understood to be a glorified mistress of a man of high status, in colloquial terms, a whore. Geishas were actually amongst the most respected women in Japanese society. As young girls geishas are actually called maikoas. Before becoming a geisha, a maikoa learns how to converse with men, perform traditional dances to perfection, and sing and play stringed instruments. Geishas were of great use to Daimyos. Sometimes, geishas were sent to spy on or assassinate other territorial landlords. Although, any Daimyo could easily sense that a geisha was sent to kill him; he had no defense against her. This was attributed to the fact that she was so respectable. The only way he could prevent himself from being killed was to have someone kill her before she could him." Annaisha was patient as she explained to Obi-Wan, the young teen was eagerly soaking in her words.

"So you were in effect a fancy spy and assassin." The blunt delivery from Obi-Wan had some of the gathered people snickering.

"To put it basically, yes." Atsushi rather enjoyed the way that the teen dissected the information.

"What's a Daimyo?" Annaisha and Atsushi looked at Max, neither of them would make a move without his permission.

"Please?" Obi-Wan turned bug blue eyes onto his dad, and wasn't that a revelation?

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge." Obi-Wan quoted part of the Jedi code, hoping that it would be enough to persuade him. Ignorance could and would get him killed.

Yet Max was still unsure, so far he had managed to keep Obi-Wan very far away from politics. He didn't want Obi-Wan getting caught in the back stabbing and murder plots, but on the other hand he needed to know what to look out for.

"Alright, but only until tea time." The blinding smile that Obi-Wan gave him, would have put the sun to shame.

Obi-Wan gave his dad a hug before he disappeared with Annaisha and Atsushi, Alex and Arakan looked at Max who had wandered into his small kitchen area. 

"Your son is quite the negotiator." Arakan had an amused smile on his face.

"One sentence and you caved." Alex followed Arakan who had sat at the table while Max made tea.

"Because he is right, ignorance can kill him as easily as any animal, starvation, dehydration or disease. The Tribes are already gunning for me and as soon as they know about him, that hate will extend to him. They are petty and childish enough to do so and you know that, anyone who has dealt with Tribes knows that." Max poured the tea into three cups and dragged a stool to the table before passing the cups out.

"That is the truth, the shinobi are talking about moving to scorched earth or the centre. The rest of the Elders are also thinking about it, Annaisha has spoken up about allowing those that want to get permission to leave. Annaisha has never obeyed anyone and is a forward thinker, if we had been back home in Japan such things wouldn't have been allowed." Arakan took a small sip of tea before he continued.

"All women had certain duties that they were expected to fulfill. They were made only to serve their father, husband, and son throughout her lifetime. Women followed this simple rule: As a young girl, she obeyed her father; upon marriage, she obeys her husband; and when widowed, she must then obey her son. As soon as a woman married she was assumed to bear her husband a son. If a woman became widowed, she could never marry again. This was a liberty that only men possessed. Samurai women weren’t the only ones that fought. All Japanese women had to partake in some sort of fighting during their life. They were required to protect their homes during wartime, while their husbands were away." Arakan was glad that such things had been cast out, they had tried to keep to the old ways for the first century. 

"Is the history lesson really important?" Alex wasn't trying to be rude but he didn't like talking.

"For the first century we tried to obey such rules and traditions, yet after a decade perhaps two things drastically changed. Our numbers dropped from a steadily rising 1,000 to 750 to winter and disease in one year, blame was thrown around. Then it was noticed that the amount of women had dropped by nearly a half, suddenly our birth rates dropped. And at the time women weren’t allowed to remarry but they still had a duty to produce children for the sake of the Tribe, which meant that the women who had survived were being fought over. Which caused more deaths and our numbers dropped once again, then inbreeding started. It was a dark time, due to our traditions and rules we had nearly killed ourselves. We were forced to change and adapt." Arakan fell into silence, remembering such dark times, they had nearly wiped themselves out.

"Trappers don't have a history like that, we were all outcasts and misfits from the other Tribes. Those of us who had ended up exiled because we disagreed with the higher ups, those of us that managed to group together nearly died during our first winter. We would have done as well if we hadn't met a cranky bastard." Alex looked at Max who raised his cup in a mock salute.

"Dad!" Obi-Wan came running into the house.

"Yeeees?" The reply was long and drawn out, Obi-Wan mock glared at his dad.

"Bronwyn wants to know if it's alright for me to go fishing with him." Big blue eyes were pinned on him, Max noticed that there was a thick line of silver around Obi-Wan's iris.

"Why didn't he ask me himself?" Mwx knew that he was playing dumb.

"He is afraid of you, said if we were going to go fishing together then I had to tell you." Obi-Wan was laid over his dad's back, the faint smell of citronal filled his nose.

"Why are people afraid of me? I have done nothing." Max ignored the snickering that was coming from Arakan and Alex.

"It might have something to do with the fact that you wiped out three quarters of the Tribes at the time, although to be fair they did try and enslave you and turn you into a weapon for their personal use." Atsushi's incredibly dry response had Alex laughing into his cup while Arakan pretended to be taking a drink of his tea, Annaisha unfolded her fan to hide her smirk.

"Only an idiot tries to control nature." While his dad was sort of distracted he leaned over and pinched his cup of tea and drank it.

"Very true, something that they had to learn the hard way. It took some of the Tribes over 200 years to recover, part of the reason why no one had met him was because he had been travelling for over a 1,000 years. He is one of the oldest living members on Ark." Atsushi looked at Annaisha who was staring at Obi-Wan, a peculiar look on her face.

"How old are you Obi-Wan?" The question caught Obi-Wan off guard.

"16." The calm reply took them by surprise, although with what they knew about Max nothing should surprise them.

"Obi-Wan won't undergo any changes until he is 21, it is part of an evolutionary defence that many of us developed." Max stood up and began to refill the metal teapot with water.

"During the blood wars, many elementals were slaughtered. We are easily defined by our strange coloured eyes, which meant that we easily spotted and killed. However the only thing that can kill an elemental is another elemental." Max put the teapot on the fire.

"But you're a hybrid, does that apply to you?" Alex looked at Max who was staring at the fire, a dark look in his eyes.

"Hybrids are hated because we have all the strengths of our pureblood counterparts but none of the weaknesses, I have advanced healing due to being a shifter. However if I get injured my healing prioritises what is more important, when I broke my ribs I also punctured my heart, or rather it was nearly severed in half. Instead of dealing with the broken ribs and the fact that my lungs were filling up with blood, my heart was healed first." Obi-Wan wrapped his hands around his dad and clung to him, that had been something he hadn't wanted to go through. But it had happened.

"That is horrifying, disturbing and incredibly interesting at the same time." Bronwyn appeared behind Alex, causing Obi-Wan to jump with surprise and Atsushi to launch a dagger.

"You could have gotten yourself killed!" Alex turned furious eyes on Bronwyn.

"We were supposed to go fishing, not a history lesson." Bronwyn wasn't sorry about what he had done.

"Of course, Obi-Wan go and get the fishing traps. Have fun." Max pressed a kiss to Obi-Wan's forehead and Obi-Wan disappeared to go and get the traps, Bronwyn followed after Obi-Wan.

"I could really use a drink." Alex looked at Max with a pleading gaze, Max snorted and stood up.

"I have a couple of barrels of mead and one of sake left, I was going to trade them but fuck it." Max made his way to the hatch that was in the corner of the living room.

There was some banging and swearing, then they heard the sound of someone climbing up the ladders. Vines were extended from his back and in each vine was a barrel, the barrels were carefully put on the floor. They watched in horrified fascination as the vines receded back into his back, trickles of blood ran down his back.

"You lot can get shit faced, alcohol had no effect on me as you know. So I'm going to do some cooking, I should have some noodles leftover." With that Max disappeared back into the kitchen.

Humming filled the air as Max lost himself in his cooking, the bond between him and Obi-Wan pulsing happily as he lit the stove. Obi-Wan would be hungry when he got back.

His son was a growing teenager after all.

His son.

That was going to take some getting used to especially saying it out loud.

* * *

Obi-Wan found Bronwyn to be an interesting and colourful character, for starters he swore a lot he also showed Obi-Wan a few of his tricks in regards to baiting the traps. Bronwyn had killed some Compsognathus or Compy as they were more commonly known as, Bronwyn then made several cuts in them before he put the carcass in the back of the fish trap.

"Dad uses rotten meat." Obi-Wan was interested in how the two men used different techniques.

"Which is also a good bait, so is raw meat and blood. It attracts fish, so it doesn't matter what is used as bait." Bronwyn enjoyed spending time with Obi-Wan, the teen was a breath of fresh air.

The teen was always willing to learn and try new things, Max had really lucked out with a child like Obi-Wan. Bronwyn was slightly jealous of the other, Obi-Wan was going to be a powerhouse when he was older and Max was teaching him everything that he knew. Which was a lot, Max had been the one that taught the trappers how to survive. Then he had left after a year, didn't say where he was going, he just disappeared.

But looking at Obi-Wan, Bronwyn understood why he had done so. Obi-Wan was a treasure and one that Max would guard with a fierceness that would rival a wyvern, Bronwyn had no pity for anyone that would try and harm Obi-Wan. Max would destroy all in his path if a single hair was out of place, Obi-Wan either didn't know about the amount of power that his father had or he just didn't care about it.

Bronwyn had been a child when the Tribes had tried to enslave Max using Tek, the most advanced technology that they had, only for Max to melt it as soon as it touched his skin. For months afterwards he had been unable to sleep, the screams had haunted him for months. But then after he had been booted out of the Craftsman Tribe, he had learned who the real monster was and it wasn't Max.

The Tribes had been the ones to corner him, they had been the ones that had tried to force him. They hadn't taken no for an answer.

He hadn't realised just how toxic the Tribes were until he had gotten away from them, it was then that he knew that would never go back.

Max had stood by his side through the worst times of his life and he had never asked for anything, going fishing with Obi-Wan wasn't a chore that he was forced to do. He was doing it because he could, because Obi-Wan was a gem. 

Obi-Wan was a rare and precious thing.

When the Tribes find out about him, then things would change and not for the better, after all Obi-Wan was Max's weakness now. They would try and use Obi-Wan against his father, but that wouldn't happen. Bronwyn wouldn't allow it to, he would gladly and happily go to war if it meant keeping this precious teen safe. Bronwyn knew that he wouldn’t be the only one either, Annaisha and Atsushi were smitten with Obi-Wan as well.

Obi-Wan had trained killers willing to defend him and he didn't even know it.

"Bronwyn come and look at this!" Bronwyn found himself being dragged along, a smile on Obi-Wan's face.

Bronwyn would paint the Island red before anything happened to Obi-Wan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed part one, this took sometime to write but don't regret it one bit. Even with the cramp that happened afterwards.
> 
> Comments make the world go round 😁


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drinking, fishing and it is time to depart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is part 2 of chapter 7 as promised, hope you enjoy it.

By the time Obi-Wan and Bronwyn returned it was dark and a fire was roaring in front of the house and all the torches were lit, the small group was well and truly hammered, the terrible drunken singing emanating from the house was horrendous. Off pitch, half sung, half mumbled words, Bronwyn grimaced as he heard Alex sing.

"Oh fuck no, I am not dealing with a drunk Alex fuck that shit."

"Hmmm?" Obi-Wan blinked several times as he struggled to stay awake, he had a lot of excitement today and he was more than ready to head to bed.

The front door opened, light came flaring out causing the two of them to squint against the harsh light Max stepped out. He took a deep breath, the drunken singing got much louder now that the door was open.

"Your brother is legless, half asleep and singing into his mead." Max looked at the pair of them before he looked at the fish traps.

"Any luck?" 

Obi-Wan lifted up his fish trap with a smile on his face.

"Three Sabertooth Salmon and two Coelacanth." Bronwyn slapped Obi-Wan on the shoulder and wandered into the house, he had a drunk brother to deal with.

"Come on, I'm making Sushi tonight. Before they got legless I was able to do some trading with them." Obi-Wan grinned as he followed his dad into the house.

It took them well over three hours to get back into the kitchen, even then it was a fight to get the door open as they had ended up barricaded in the kitchen, courtesy of Alex and Bronwyn who then passed out.

Needless to say it was a rather hectic night for Obi-Wan and his dad.

* * *

It took two days for the group to get rid of their hangovers, they had yet to move from the bed, instead they spent the two days sleeping and drinking plenty of water. Bronwyn took Obi-Wan fishing again while Max had spent the day doing jobs and looking after the 'suffering' group, however neither of the men had any sympathy for them. Obi-Wan had enjoyed the fishing trip with Bronwyn, Obi-Wan hadn't been on a hunting trip with his dad, mainly because it was far too late in the year to do so. Even fishing was a hard job, they had to hack away at ice, then they had to stay close to where they had placed the traps. They even had to go out every hour to hack at the ice, otherwise it would freeze over.

Bronwyn had also taught him some of the constellations in, while Obi-Wan hoped that he would have been able to do this with his dad. But with how quickly winter was approaching it wasn't possible, so Bronwyn had decided to try and cheer him up. Bronwyn didn't have any children of his own and he had admitted to getting practice with him, not that he minded. He was enjoying himself.

"Food!" The shout from the kitchen window had the two of them scrambling to the house.

Obi-Wan used the Force to drag Bronwyn back a few feet and he ran ahead.

"You little cheat!" Bronwyn tried to catch up with Obi-Wan only for the teen to laugh and run into the house.

"Stop running in the house." Bronwyn picked up speed and crashed into Alex who was exiting the house.

"Hello Alex, has anyone told you that you are very comfortable to lay on." Alex shoved Bronwyn off him and smirked as he hit the ground.

"Why were you chasing Obi-Wan?" Green met mud coloured eyes.

"Obi-Wan is a cheater, a dirty rotten cheater. I'm so proud of him." Bronwyn wiped away an imaginary tear.

"We are heading out later, so eat up." Alex held his hand out for Bronwyn to take a hold of.

"Figured as much, we have done our trading." Bronwyn followed his nose to the kitchen before sitting at the table and began to shovel the food into his mouth.

He polished his food off in a matter of minutes, he hated to rush his food but they were leaving today and no one wanted to get stuck in the middle of nowhere during winter. 

"Dad said that you are all leaving today, the ice is just thick enough to walk on." Obi-Wan looked at Bronwyn, who was packing a travel bag.

"We are moving out after we have all finished eating and packing our bags, Annaisha has been chopping firewood. Arakan has spent the day fishing to replenish the food that had been eaten, Atsushi has been fixing clothes. He has even finished making a coat for you, Alex has just finished gathering what he could. He also put the traded items into the storage shed." Bronwyn finished packing his bag, he put it next to the door.

"I know we haven't spent much time together and I know that you and I don't know each other all that well, but I would be honoured to call you nephew." Obi-Wan stood there for a few minutes, completely stunned.

Bronwyn, thinking that he had overstepped his boundaries, made to pull away. Obi-Wan moved forwards and tackled him around the middle, his face pressed into Bronwyn's stomach. Bronwyn frowned as he heard Obi-Wan mumble something into him.

"Repeat that little one." 

Obi-Wan lifted his head and strange silver-blue eyes met mud brown ones.

"I would love it if I could call you uncle."

Bronwyn smiled and hauled Obi-Wan up onto his feet before hugging the teen. Obi-Wan melted into the hug and soon found another set of arms wrapping around him, then another, and another. Until eventually it was a giant ball of bodies and arms.

"Can't breathe." Obi-Wan found himself completely squished and unable to move at all.

"Alright let's break it up, we are burning daylight." They all pulled apart, Obi-Wan clung on just a little bit longer.

"Remember young one, no matter how far apart a family gets you are never truly alone." Arakan touched his forehead with Obi-Wan's before he moved away.

"Family is far more than blood, it is the bonds that you create with others." Annaisha kissed Obi-Wan's cheek and moved towards Arakan.

"Just because we all part doesn't mean that the bonds that hold us together will fade." Atsushi pressed his forehead to Obi-Wan's much like Arakan had done, before he moved away.

"Hunting and fishing are similar, you need patience for both. Winter also requires a lot of patience, endure the winter and everything else seems insignificant." Alex clasped arms with Obi-Wan before he moved to stand with the others.

"A bond is getting forged between us, one that will be unbreakable. To fight one, is to fight us all." Bronwyn pulled Obi-Wan in for a hug before reluctantly releasing him.

Max stepped forwards and an arm crossed over his chest.

"Winter is a time for rest so that we may gather our strength for the coming spring, be safe and travel quickly." Max lowered his arm and the small group began to leave.

Obi-Wan watched as they disappeared in the snow, he leaned into his dad. An arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"Come on kiddo, let's get indoors before the snow gets worse." With that Max dragged Obi-Wan into the house, the day was young but the snow was coming down in sheets.

"Get extra layers on, I'm going to increase my body temperature so that I can combat the cold. But until you turn 21 you won't be able to do it." Max grabbed an extra coat and put it on Obi-Wan.

"How come you froze to death one winter then?" The cheeky question had Max smiling and ruffling Obi-Wan's hair, glad to see such cheekiness in the teen. It would serve him well.

"I didn't learn this trick until later, much later." The sardonic smile on his face told Obi-Wan just what he thought about that.

"Well if you haven't done it then it isn't worth doing, or you haven't thought of it yet." Obi-Wan grinned at his dad, who finished fastening his coat.

"Your faith in your old man has been noted." Max stuck a hat on Obi-Wan's head, he wasn't taking any risks. At all.

"Dad stop turning me into a mummy, if I fall over I will not get back up." The wry amusement on Obi-Wan's face, was not missed by his dad who merely laughed.

"Turtle-Wan." Obi-Wan gaped in horror at his dad, who smirked at him.

"No." The horror he felt must be showing on his face as the smirk got wider.

"Oh yes." Max looked like the loth cat that got the cream and the canary.

"Let's go and get these jobs done." Obi-Wan waddled out of the room, the amount of layers that he had on was greatly affecting his movement.

Max followed after him, the smirk still on his face as the harsh bitter wind whipped around him. His internal core temperature began to rise in response, Obi-Wan was making sure that both Jade and Onyx were safe and secure in their kennels. A fire was roaring away near the kennels melting the snow and ice that had built up, large sharp icicles were dangling from the roof, all it would take was a strong enough wind and they would fall off and impale someone or something. That was something that had to be avoided at all costs, Max grabbed the ladders, this was going to be extremely risky.

"Obi-Wan! Hold the base of the ladders, I have to get these icicles off before they harm or kill someone or something." Obi-Wan was white head to toe, his eyelashes had begun to freeze.

"Are we going to use them?" Despite the fact that the bottom half of his face was covered, Max was able to make out what Obi-Wan had said.

"Once I get them down, it will be a good source of freshwater." Max began to climb up the ladder, his bare hands causing the snow and ice to melt under his hands.

Steam curled around his face as he continued to climb up the ladder, Obi-Wan stood at the bottom of the ladder holding it still. Running his finger in a circle motion across the top of the icicle, He grabbed it as it went to fall. It was easily between 15 to 20 inches thick and nearly a foot in length, if that fell on someone's head it could quite easily kill them. A bucket floated up next to him and he dropped the icicle into the bucket before repeating the action six more times, he began to climb down the ladder. Once he was at the bottom he looked at Obi-Wan, his cheeks were red and despite the layers he had on, he looked cold.

Which was worrying.

Max pulled Obi-Wan close to him and raised his body temperature even more, the snow and ice melted and even the snow that was falling was melting in midair.

"I'm fine dad, really. Just need to keep moving." Despite his words he still snuggled deeper into the hug.

"You go and sit next to the fire near the house,I'm going to check the water pipes." Max gently pushed Obi-Wan towards the fire.

Sitting on a log that was elevated off the ground Obi-Wan sat in front of the fire and watched as his dad disappeared, noticing a metal pot he went back into the house and grabbed some food to make a stew with. Balancing a chopping board on his legs he began to peel and chop rockarrot, savoroot, cured bacon and Dodo meat. Throwing fat into the pan he watched as it melted once it was melted he threw the Dodo meat into the pan, the sizzling hiss as it hit the bottom of the pan had Jade and Onyx looking at him. His entire body was thrumming with power, the Force hummed under his skin as he summoned bowls and spoons to himself. 

Jade and Onyx curled around his feet, enjoying the extra warmth that the fire was provided despite the fact that there was a fire near the kennels. Which currently had the Argentavis standing in front of it, Obi-Wan looked at it. He could see the frost that was gathering on its wings, it looked painful and uncomfortable. Obi-Wan had watched his dad whistle and call Jade, Onyx and the Raptor pack to him, he wasn't sure if it would work.

There was only one way for him to find out.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath and attempted to whistle, at first it failed, so he tried again. He failed again, but he wasn't going to give up, he would do this. 

He took a deep breath.

Then he cleared his mind.

The Force hummed under his skin, the unnatural warmth of his dad pulsed down the bond warming him. He could feel pride and concern floating down the bond, he submerged himself in the bond.

Opening his eyes he brought his lips together and he whistled.

For a moment everything stilled, then slowly the Argentavis walked forwards, gold eyes kept him pinned in place. Soon it was towering over him but unlike the first time that they met, he wasn't afraid of it. Despite knowing that it could kill him and he knew and accepted that, but just because it could kill him didn't mean that he had to fear it. A lightsaber could easily kill but Jedi were trained how to use it and how to defend with it, all he needed to do was learn about it.

A large beak came dangerously close to his neck, he felt hot breath against his cheek. He raised his hand and placed it against the sharp beak, Jade and Onyx appeared at his legs, both of them had their teeth bared.

"You are very stunning." He patted the Argentavis on its beak, the giant bird leaned against him.

Obi-Wan could feel the cold through the extra layers, even with the unnatural heat that had been given to him from his dad, the temperature was dropping again. A harsh wind blew and the cold sunk deep into his bones, even Jade and Onyx began to shiver and they had thick fur coats. The Argentavis hunkered closer to the ground, Jade and Onyx curled around it. Soon he found himself in the middle of some sort of cuddle pile, it still didn't get rid of the cold that had settled itself into his bones.

A wave of heat hit his battered body and the fire roared back into life, rather than the small flickering flames that it had been. Obi-Wan moved with trembling legs until he reached the firewood pile, Jade whined next to him, her fur was frozen in white clumps. Using the Force Obi-Wan began to throw the wood into the fire, the smaller logs he threw in by hand. By the time he had managed to get his hands warm the firewood pile had gone down a considerable amount, but looking at the way that they were all gathered around the fire he didn't regret it. Stretching his legs out he watched as Jade and Onyx curled around each other next to the fire, the Argentavis was sitting down as close to the fire as it could get.

Obi-Wan lifted the heavy pot and put it further on the fire, he watched as small curls of steam began to form. The sound of footsteps had him turning as his dad was walking. His arms were filled with wood, despite the fact that he was only wearing a shirt, trousers and a pair of shoes. He looked incredibly warm.

"Extra firewood, I had to go on Lucky to get to decent sized trees. Her and the pack dragged the rest back, just needs chopping but this stuff can go on straight away." Max threw the wood onto the fire, he sat next to Obi-Wan and pulled the teen into a hug.

"You're cold despite the layers, it's only going to get colder as well. Especially if it's a cloudless night, we will have to move inside fairly soon." Obi-Wan leaned into his dad and felt his eyes begin to close.

"No falling asleep, it's the worst thing to do in the cold." Max shook Obi-Wan back awake, falling asleep in the cold meant death.

"Food is done, eat then we are going back into the house." Max reached into the fire and grabbed hold of the handle, before he pulled it out of the fire. The metal began to melt in his hand.

"Mmmm, I'm so tired." Obi-Wan struggled to open his eyes, he felt so tired as if he could sleep for a week.

"Come on kiddo." Max scooped some of the stew into the bowls, he passed a bowl to Obi-Wan who bleary blinked at him.

Obi-Wan stuck his spoon in the bowl, his hand shook as he lifted the spoon. A hot hand wrapped around his hand to stop it from shaking, he was so cold and tired. 

"Easy son, I have you." The spoon was pressed against his lips, everything took too much energy.

Max kept feeding Obi-Wan slowly, watching as Obi-Wan struggled to keep his eyes open, the cold was sapping his strength and with how thin Obi-Wan was it was adding a lot more problems. The weight that he wanted Obi-Wan to gain he hadn't, even with the amount of meals that he had been eating. But there wasn't anything that he could do about it now, winter had arrived and everyday was going to be more of a fight than normal. Even his tames were feeling the cold, he could end up losing them all if he didn’t do something. However he had to be careful, releasing too much heat to bake everything alive, not enough and all he would be doing is adding more problems to the already long list.

The only ones that he wasn't having problems with were the Dodos, which made a change, normally he was having to stop them from eating things that they weren't supposed to. Although if he was being honest there was nothing funnier than a Dodo running around with a stone the size of its head in its mouth, despite the problems that it caused. Dodos were menaces when it came to stones, they ate them for no reason at all.

Obi-Wan leaned against him, his eyes were slipping close again, making a decision he stood up and picked Obi-Wan up in one go. He kicked the door open and then he moved into the newly added bedroom, Obi-Wan had persuaded him to add one rather than having everything squished into one room. Which was a good thing now that he thought about it, the fire was roaring away in the fireplace. He put Obi-Wan on the bed and quickly stripped him off, the already warm room was heating up even more.

Once Obi-Wan was stripped off and under plenty of blankets he went to go and make a pot of tea, he needed to get Obi-Wan's core to warm up. Which meant food high in sugar and something warm to drink, hence the tea and cookies. Once he returned back to the room Obi-Wan looked a lot better, he was more alert and sitting up. Max passed him the tea and cookie, Obi-Wan reached for the cup, his hands shook slightly but it wasn't as bad as it was earlier. 

"It's pancakes for tea, something light and simple. You'll need sugar as well, but you're going to sit here and do nothing." Max pressed his normal temperature hand to Obi-Wan's forehead.

"You're looking better, but you're to stay in bed and no more going out. It's a mix of hypothermia, exhaustion and hunger, so you're bed bound. Again." Obi-Wan darkly scowled, this was the last thing that he wanted.

"I only just got out of the bed." He wasn't pouting no matter what was said.

"Hmmm, you are terrible at looking after yourself. I let you do it for just under a month and this is what happens, you are clearly unable to look after yourself so from now on I'm doing it." Max tucked the blankets and furs under Obi-Wan's legs, before leaving the room.

Obi-Wan was still scowling as he watched his dad leave the room, it wasn't as if he deliberately forgot to eat and sleep, there had been a lot to do in preparation for winter. So what if he forgot a meal or two or if he skipped sleep for a couple of nights?

Clearly his dad had issues with his well being and habits.

Jade and Onyx came barrelling into the room along with the pack, they all climbed on the bed. Sharp claws dug into pillows as the pack tried to get comfortable, Jade and Onyx were curled up in front of fire. The Raptors got comfortable on the bed, all piled on top of each other, their eyes closed as the heat warmed their tired bodies.

His dad reappeared in the doorway a tray in his hands.

"Food."

The tray was placed on Obi-Wan's lap, then he used his free hand to toss pieces of prime meat at Jade and Onyx who caught them in mid air. The Raptors were woken up by the noise and they were given strips of jerky as a treat, they swallowed it down in one gulp before going back to sleep.

"I'm going back out, I'm going to see if I can build something for Mr grumpy. They are going to stay in here with you, the extra warmth will do you all the world of good." Max pressed a kiss to Obi-Wan's forehead before he disappeared out the door.

Obi-Wan looked at the tray of pancakes, tea and jerky, he knew that if he didn’t eat all of it there would be trouble and he was hungry, he just wasn't sure if he could eat it all. Obi-Wan whistled and the gathered tames looked at him, grabbing the jerky he began to throw it to them.

After all what his dad didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

* * *

Making some sort of shelter for the Argentavis was going to be a problem, but it wasn't as if he had faced far worse challenges. Befriending the Raptor pack came to mind, first building a homestead was another. So in theory this should be relatively easy, hopefully he could handle any problem that cropped up. He had built a large bonfire near the house, the Argentavis was hunkered down near it and the frost was melting off its feathers. What was bothering him was why hadn't it migrated?

It wasn't as if it didn't have permission.

Looking carefully at the Argentavis he began to catalogue certain things, if he were a guessing man he would say that the Argentavis was male and still a juvenile. Still too young to be on its own, but old enough to get booted out of the nest by its parents. Which probably explained why it had been so easy to capture and tame it, it wasn't as experienced as the older ones were.

This was a good thing and a bad thing, with a constant supply of food it was possible that he would grow bigger than his wild counterparts. The bad side of it would be they wouldn't be able to release him into the wild, he wouldn't have the skills that his wild counterparts would and would most likely end up either returning to them or starving to death.

It was grim, but it was the truth as well.

Hammering nails into the framework was straightforward and soon he had the entire framework set up, now it was just a matter of putting the planks into place. The roof also needed to be on an angle, otherwise the weight of the snow would cause it to cave inwards. Gathering the planks he walked back to the framework, glancing up he frowned and it looked like it was going to snow again soon he needed to get his arse into gear. Getting the planks into position he began to hammer the nails into the plank, vines kept the board in place. 

The first snowflake hit his bare skin, taking a deep breath he raised his temperature slightly.

It looked like he was on the clock.

* * *

Obi-Wan had fallen asleep when his dad had finally returned to the house, Max stuck his head into the room and smiled at the sight that greeted him. Jade and Onyx had climbed on the bed with the Raptor pack. He wasn't cramped on the large bed, if anything he was stretched out full length, the Raptors were also full length on the bed. Jade and Onyx were curled around each other, the fire was still happily crackling away. Throwing a few more logs onto the fire he left the room, leaving the door open slightly.

Max wandered into the front room and opened his seed chest, he needed to find out what he had and how much he had. Each bag was labeled with a letter and colour, green was more than enough, amber meant he was running short and red meant that there was none. But with the recent trading that he had done he should have replenished his seeds, however it all depended on what he had gotten.

One by one he pulled the bags out of the chest.

Spinach seed, green.

Tomato seed, amber.

Sugarcane, green.

Soybean seed, green.

Rice seed, green.

Rockarrot seed, amber.

Longrass seed, green.

Barley seed, green.

And a single Cashew tree seedling, he wasn't even half way through the chest yet. But it was helping him to figure out what he needed to do, he needed to make a paddy field for the rice. The sugarcane would have to be grown in a greenhouse, there was no getting around that. Which meant he had to go mining for metal, which was going to be a long and time consuming process. But thankfully it was winter, he had nothing but time, there was a trick that he could do to separate the metal ore from everything else but he hadn't mastered it more often than not he melted it.

So he would continue to do it by hand.

However that would have to wait until tomorrow, it was dark now and he wasn't going to go mining in the dark. There were easier ways to kill himself.

So for now he would continue to plan what he was going to do as soon as spring arrived, he needed to work out how much glass and metal he was going to need. Which meant he needed to make a blueprint.

Grabbing a piece of charcoal Max began to design the blueprint and work out exactly what he needed, it was going to be dull work but it was going to be worth it in the end. Especially if he could grow food all year round.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets through the winter and a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the last chapter, but this isn't the end altogether. 
> 
> There will be more later on, keep an eye open.
> 
> https://www.liveabout.com/history-and-style-guide-russian-sambo-2308279

They were halfway through winter, Obi-Wan hadn't been allowed back out after he had nearly caught hypothermia. Obi-Wan was of the mind that his dad was overreacting, however just because he was stuck indoors didn't mean that he was idle. Every morning after he woke he spent two hours meditating, then he would do Katas for another two. After that he would have breakfast, then he would spend some time fixing clothes. Then he would help dad with making dinner, he would then eat it all under the watchful eyes of his dad. Who would then leave to go mining for metal ore, so Obi-Wan would spend his afternoon sorting out chests and cupboards.

When his dad returned from mining he would help him to sort out the ore for processing and melting, his back would ache by the time he finished. But he didn't regret it, not when he had seen his dad go over blueprints, muttering to himself as he did so. So far they had gathered enough iron to create one wall of the greenhouse, the glass planes had been carefully moved into an empty room. 

On a night his dad would train with him, teaching him the different fighting techniques that he knew, Kali, Capoeira were two of his favourite fighting styles although Capoeira had a very dark history. One that his dad had explained to him, it had made him respect it all the more.

_Capoeira draws its original, distant origins from African fighting styles, and much of its' beginnings in South America comes from slaves. In somewhat similar fashion to how karate was often hidden in kata by practitioners, slaves in the rubber industry in Bolivia invented fighting 'dances' where one performer played the slave and the other, the Caporal or master. During this performance, the slave defended himself or herself against the master. Eventually, this dance traveled to Brazil via African slaves, where it was refined and became known as Capoeira._

It was stunning when he saw his dad go through each of the movements and despite that they had no music he could feel the rhythm in each and every movement, it was chaotic and unpredictable, it was also going to help keep him alive. But Obi-Wan knew that sometimes things of great beauty had the most horrific history, he also spent many hours practicing with a sword. Something that was vastly different from training with a lightsaber, but he enjoyed the burn, the way his body ached after each training session.

His dad knew many forms of fighting, Russian Sambo was a mix of many forms of fighting it was a bridge between them all, it took what was good from each form and combined it into one form. Obi-Wan wanted to do something like that, he wanted to combine different styles into one. Perhaps it was arrogant of him to think that he would be able to do it, or maybe he wasn't being arrogant and was merely testing himself, either way once he was old enough he was going to try. He wanted to see if it was possible.

But that was many years away.

For now he was more than happy to watch and learn and make things, such as a new pair of shoes, which was far more harder than what he had thought it would be.

Dad had made it look so easy.

But then again he had been doing it long before Obi-Wan had ever been thought of, he knew that dad was far older than what he looked at he had been on Ark for more than a 1,000 years before he had been found. But what about the years before that?

Ark was filled with a large mismatch of culture, traditions, religion and buildings. There were those like his dad that lived far away from the Tribes and in the middle of nowhere, then there were those like the trappers that had been booted out of the Tribes and had come together to create their own. It was astonishing to see how life continued to thrive, even when all the odds were stacked against it. Obi-Wan knew that he had been beyond lucky to be picked up by who he had been, there was an already established homestead, there was no fighting for food he had somewhere warm to sleep and he was loved and cared for.

Or maybe it wasn't luck but the Force, after all it had been the Force that had created the bond between them, so by that theory it had been the Force that had allowed Max to find him and become his dad.

Something that he was grateful for.

The house had grown, instead of being just a two floor house, it now had a basement, bedroom, kitchen, front room, storage room and then there was his side of the house that his dad had given him. He had yet to use it, instead he shared his dad's bed. Childish but he didn't care, there was no here to judge him. Not that he would care even if there was.

"Obi-Wan, come and try this." He skipped into the kitchen, he had a lot of energy today which was something that was common these days.

Obi-Wan was greeted to the sight of his dad standing in front of the small stove keeping an eye on the bubbling pot, a mix of berries was scattered across the chopping board.

"Pick out two flavours that taste good together and then give them to me." 

Obi-Wan grabbed some Amarberry and Mejoberry, he scowled and spat them out. Chuckling was heard as a cup of water was passed to him.

"Rinse your mouth and try again." 

This time he grabbed some Azulberry and Mejoberry, this time the taste was pleasing to his mouth, the flavours compliment each other.

"This combination is sort of pleasant, but I'm not sure if I could be able to eat it all the time or for long periods of time." 

Max hummed as he watched Obi-Wan tred different combinations, a few of them he spat out with a disgusted look on his face. Part of him wanted to laugh at the look on his son's face, the other part wanted to remove the look from his face. But they needed to pick out flavours for the sweets, and since Obi-Wan was going to be the one who ate them the most. Any left over would be traded, that was if there was any left over.

But watching as Obi-Wan spat out nearly every combination of berry baring one, he was slightly disheartened that Obi-Wan was unable to pick a flavour or flavours that he liked. But that was fine, there were still plenty of other flavours that he could use, he knew that Obi-Wan liked citronal and Mejoberry by themselves. So he could do a mix of them and any other flavours that Obi-Wan liked, which wasn't that many.

But this was a treat for Obi-Wan, so the flavours would be ones that he liked.

"Any combinations that you like?" Obi-Wan shook his head, he didn't like the combinations at all.

"No sorry dad." Obi-Wan was scrubbing his tongue trying to get rid of the disgusting flavours.

"It's not your fault." He ruffled Obi-Wan's hair before he looked at the pot.

"Peel and cut some citronal for me, don't worry about the pif. Just take off the yellow skin for me, then grab the juicer it should be in one of the cupboards." Obi-Wan reached for a small knife and began to carefully cut the outer skin off.

"What are we doing?" Max looked at the bubbling pot, they would have enough time to get everything sorted.

"We are going to add citronal to the boiling sugar and the chopped peel will get stirred in as well." Max kept an eye on the boiling mixture, there was nothing worse than burnt sugar.

"So this is our flavouring." Obi-Wan put the peel to one side to be chopped later.

"Yes, but adding it to soon can ruin it. But adding it too late will mean that it won't take because the sugar will harden. Adding it at the right time is crucial." Obi-Wan cut the citronal into wedges before starting on another one.

"This is coming off the heat soon." The mix was starting to turn a light brown.

Obi-Wan chopped up the peel and pushed it to the edge of the chopping board, the wedges were pushed to another.

"Grab me a cup, we need to squeeze the just out of the wedges and into a cup." Obi-Wan moved and began to look around in the cupboards, he couldn't remember which one the cups were in.

"Third cupboard, right hand side, bottom shelf." 

Obi-Wan opened the cupboard and glared at the cups.

"How do you do that?" Grabbing a couple of cups he moved towards the stove.

"I cleaned the kitchen earlier, and I moved everything around after I cleaned." Max grabbed a wedge and began to squeeze the juice into a cup.

Obi-Wan copied his dad's actions catching the pips in his hand as he squeezed the juice out of each wedge, soon he had half a cup of juice he watched as his dad gathered the rind and chopped it up into thin strips.

"Pour the juice into one cup and move away from me, the doorway would be safest." He followed the instructions that his dad gave him before moving into the doorway.

He watched as the juice was poured into the mixture, the hissing and crackling sound had him moving further backwards. Then the thin strips of rind were added and a wooden spoon was soon in the pot, each movement was careful. Then it was bored into a metal tray, the tray was picked up and banged against the counter several times.

"Once it gets cool enough, then it can be cut. But until then, we will have to find something else to do." Max guided Obi-Wan out of the kitchen, he knew that Obi-Wan was well aware of the dangers of hot sugar, but he still worried.

The duo walked into the front room and curled up together in front of the fire, both of them watching the flames dance.

* * *

They were almost at the end of winter and in two short weeks winter would be over and spring would be knocking on their front door, but that didn't mean that they could get lazy or excited about spring being so close. There was plenty that they needed to do when spring arrived, there was the greenhouse to build, the rice paddy to dig, then there was a cashew sapling that they needed to plant. The cashew sapling had been growing inside the house all winter and it had grown a fair bit. They needed to replenish their food supply as well, the smokehouse was starting to get low in terms of food. They had plenty of other things, tea, flour, sorghum, barley but the jerky and meat supplies were running out. Obi-Wan still spent a fair bit of time meditating but now he didn’t sit down to do it, instead he used his Katas to help him meditate.

It helped to clear his mind far better than sitting down to do mediation ever did, he wondered why everyone didn't do it. But that wasn't his problem, he had found something that worked for him and he was going to continue to use it. He had another busy day, he still had a pair of shoes to fix. He had already tried multiple times to fix them, but each time he had failed. The stitches never seemed to hold, or if they did then they didn't last long. But it took practice and that was what he was doing, getting practice, the shoes were an old pair and ones that only got worn in the house. Which in this situation was a good thing, because if the stitches came out or didn't hold then they were safe indoors.

But first he was going to do his Katas.

* * *

Keeping the water pipes defrosted all the time was beyond tiring, there was nearly a mile of pipe, that was without the water tower itself. That had to be checked on daily, at the moment they had a fire burning underneath it all day and night. It got topped up every couple of hours without fail, otherwise the water in the tank would freeze. It was a never ending battle and one that took him away from his son for long periods of time, it took nearly an hour to walk to the water tank due to the snow and ice. Then he had to top up the fire, after that he would have to check each pipe before going back to the water tank and top the fire up again.

By the time he got back to the house he barely had time to kiss Obi-Wan on the forehead and drink a cup of tea, then he would have to go back out again. During the night he wouldn't make it back to the house, instead he would spend all night out with the water tower. He had barely seen Obi-Wan in the last week, but if it meant that Obi-Wan was safe, fed and happy and that he had everything that he needed to survive winter then it was worth it. The Raptor pack would occasionally venture out, they would do a quick patrol before they went back in the house.

The Argentavis had yet to leave his shack, throwing strips of meat into the doorway and topping up the fire were the only interactions that he had with the juvenile Argentavis. The only reason he knew it was still alive was the food kept getting ate, he really needed to make kibble. Which was going to be added to the rapidly increasing list of jobs that needed to be done, but that was the life out here.

There was a never ending list of things that needed to be done. But so long as he didn't think about it too much, then it didn't get him down. Perhaps one day if they had enough tames then they wouldn't have to do so much, having a bigger dinosaur would help with construction but it was getting one. That and he really wasn't eager to run into any of the bigger predators, however trying to tame a herbivore would attract the predators. 

He was going to have to weigh the pros and cons, but if he wanted to expand the homestead then he would have to. However he would need to be careful, if the Tribes found out that he was gathering tames then they might see it as an act of war. Which was the last thing that he needed, if he was careful about which ones he picked then he could pass them off as farm tames. 

The wind was bitter as it blew through the clearing, the sooner winter was over, the better it would be. But until that happened it was back to keeping the water tank ice free.

Joy.

* * *

The ice and snow was starting to melt, break up was upon them and one of the most dangerous times of the year. Max had finally fallen face first into bed as soon he spotted the first signs of it, with insomnia he was used to going long periods without sleep but even he was tired after going 10 days without sleep and proper food. His body was beyond battered, his joints ached and he was going to sleep for a week if not longer. Or rather that was the hope, but there was no guarantee that he would be able to do it.

"Dad?" Obi-Wan poked his head into the bedroom, concern was etched into every line.

"Mmmmffffhhh." He didn't even have the energy to answer properly.

"I made some spare rib stew for you, do you think that you can sit up?" He walked further into the room holding a tray with a bowl and some bread on it.

With a grunt and a groan Max pushed himself up, his entire body violently protesting the movement. Obi-Wan set the tray down near the bed and moved to help his dad sit up, black circles were under his eyes and it looked like he had lost a lot of weight as well. Gaunt cheeks gave him a more harrowing look, a glazed look was in the normally vibrant eyes.

"Food then you can sleep, promise." It scared him to see his dad like this, he looked as if he could get blown away by a strong breeze.

Mumbling and grumbling he bleary blinked at the tray that was placed on his lap, food was an excellent idea. Now if he could get his body to work properly, that would be wonderful. His hands shook as he tried to lift the spoon from the bowl, right now his body couldn't decide what it wanted to do, eat or sleep. 

Face planting the stew also seemed like an incredibly good idea.

"Dad, no."

Dad, yes.

* * *

Raspberry.

"Stop it."

Raspberry.

"Stop it."

Raspberry.

"Stop it."

Raspberry.

"Dad you may think that you're funny, laying there and blowing raspberries at me. But you're not."

There was a moment of silence until.

Raspberry.

"That is it!"

Obi-Wan launched himself at his dad with a war cry.

* * *

Spring was moments away from knocking on the door, the lakes and rivers were defrosted, the snow was melting and the animals were starting to return. Which was a good thing as they were on the verge of running out of food, they had maybe 5 days left if they were lucky.

Obi-Wan had spent the past three days fletching arrows, so that they could go hunting, they had also made extra fish traps as well. They needed to gather food and quickly, an early spring was a mix of good and bad, it was good because the ice and snow melted sooner and the animals returned early. But it was bad because the predators would be on the lookout for easy prey after an incredibly harsh winter and the winter that had just passed was the worst one in recent history, which meant that the predators would be ravenous.

Going out too early could be a death sentence.

But if they didn't they could end up starving, which meant that he was going out. He wasn't all that bothered about himself, but Obi-Wan needed food. 

"Dad?" Obi-Wan appeared in the doorway, his hands were filled with obsidian arrows.

"Come here kiddo." Max opened his arms and Obi-Wan shuffled forwards, the arrows held tightly in his hands.

"I don't want you to go, but I know that one of us needs to. I also know you won't let me go with you, I understand that dad I do. I just don't want to lose you, I know that you can't die properly." He was pulled into a solid chest, scarred arms wrapped around him.

"There is nothing wrong with being afraid, fear is natural and a part of life. But it doesn't have to control you, the only thing to fear is fear itself. But what is that? Only you know what makes you afraid, I can't promise to come back alive. We both know that, but I can promise you that come hell or high water I will return to you." Max pressed a kiss to Obi-Wan's forehead and held the teen close.

"I will be back before you know it, you will be safe here. You'll have Jade and Onyx with you, the pack are starting their patrols again, even Mr Grumpy will be here." Obi-Wan pulled back slightly, he knew that promises were serious things and not to be taken lightly.

"Promises are serious things." Blue-silver eyes met silver and violet.

"Not to be made lightly either." Obi-Wan nodded his head, he could accept that.

"I need to go kiddo." Obi-Wan reluctantly let go and gave the arrows to his dad.

"Love you dad."

Max's eyes softened as he looked at Obi-Wan, standing there fidgeting.

"I love you son."

With that he walked away, his heart thundering in his chest as he exited the front door.

He had made a promise and he was going to keep it.

* * *

He had spent the past three hours pacing through the house, he had tried to keep his mind busy then he had tried to meditate but failed. The fear that his dad wasn't going to return was at the forefront of his mind, but he couldn't put it from his mind. But his dad was a capable hunter and had done this before, however this winter had been one of the worst in recent history.

That was what his dad had said.

Which meant that any predators that had survived would be starving and looking for a quick and easy meal, small, easy prey.

His dad.

However his dad could pack a punch, he had watched as metal melted in his hand. But all it would take was a single bite and he could end up bitten in half or swallowed in one go, he could be attacked by a pack of Raptors. Obi-Wan felt his breathing increase, his heart pounded in his chest. Fur brushed against his fingers Jade whined as she nudged his hand, a wet nose nudged his other hand.

Jade barked and ran out of the bedroom intent on finding their human, he would be able to help his cub.

Onyx bumped his head against Obi-Wan and gently guided him to the bed, he rested his head on Obi-Wan's lap. He tried to keep the cub calm, but he wasn't sure how to, all he could do was hope that Jade would find their human in time.

* * *

Jade ran through the mud, her legs burned as she jumped over a fallen log, she followed the scent of their human further down the river. He had moved further than what she had thought he had, but hunters go where the prey is. She didn't have to hunt anymore but she still remembered how to, the thrill of the hunt as the prey ran.

She leaped over a fallen tree and ran straight through the river, the ice cold water bit at her paws. She spotted him crouched down in the bushes, she rushed towards him and tackled him to the ground.

"Jade!" The harsh tone hurt her ears, she whined and headbutted him.

As soon as their heads touched the bond between them flooded open, Max found himself being bombarded with images. 

Obi-Wan.

Panicking.

Running.

Jade pulled back and he patted her on her side before he slung his bow over his shoulder, he gently pushed Jade away from him so that he could stand up.

"Take me to him." He climbed on Jade's back and she took off running.

He shouldn't have left Obi-Wan alone.

* * *

Obi-Wan was sound asleep on him, his hand clenched in his shirt, he was emotionally, mentally and physically drained. He wasn't blaming Obi-Wan far from it, panic attacks couldn't be helped. He should have stayed with Obi-Wan but their food shortage was more important, starvation was not a nice thing to experience. All he wanted was to give Obi-Wan the best chances that he could do, yet even doing that was fraught with danger. He wasn't sure why the Force had given Obi-Wan to him, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He couldn't imagine his life without Obi-Wan now, strange how much life had changed in two months. The bond was slightly muted, a sign that Obi-Wan was in a deep sleep.

He ran his fingers through copper coloured hair, it was going to take some time for Obi-Wan to get comfortable with him leaving for long periods of time. That was fine, they would work through it together, it would take time and a lot of it. 

But there was plenty of time on Ark.

He could take Obi-Wan with him, but that would be putting Obi-Wan in unneeded danger, however could he really leave Obi-Wan alone after this?

Max sighed, he wouldn't be able to leave Obi-Wan after this. 

* * *

Obi-Wan followed behind his dad, a bow slung over his shoulder and a sword strapped to his waist. After the disaster that had been a couple of days ago, he had been rather clingy. His dad hadn't said anything, but the tightening of his grip was reassuring. They had both a scare, him more so than his dad.

"Stay low." Obi-Wan crouched low, his feet sinking into the wet sludge.

Max stuck his hand into the sludge and spread it across his face, he gestured for Obi-Wan to move forwards. He felt the cold sticky sludge coat to his skin, he shivered as the calloused fingers grazed his cheek.

"Follow me and remember stay low." Obi-Wan stuck close to his dad, it was one of the rules.

A Parasaur wandered into their sight and Max readied his bow, Obi-Wan copied. Notching his arrow he waited for the right moment. A blinding blue light filled the area, the Parasaur ran the two of them stood up and walked closer to the light.

"Dad?" He moved closer his arrow still notched as he looked at the light.

"It could be a supply drop, they happen every few months or so." Max was relaxed, his first priority was Obi-Wan.

The light began to die down, Obi-Wan moved to his dad's side. He looked at how relaxed he was, it was clear that he wasn't worried about what was happening. The light died away completely and the two of them stood there looking at the sight in horror.

Three small children were stood where the light had been a one of them couldn't be no older than 8 or 9. His red and black skin stood out, his yellow-red eyes were wary. The next one was holding an infant, they couldn't have been much older than 4 or 5 at tops. Yellow and brown skin glinted under the sun, they looked scared and clutched the small bundle tighter in their arms. Their strange grayish-green eyes landed on them, a hand snuck and tugged on the older child's hand. 

Yellow-red eyes landed on them.

"Who are you?" They moved and stood infront of the others, shielding them from view.

Max wanted to scream, more children, more young lives that could be lost easily, it looked like he only had one option.

"I'm Max and this is my son, Obi-Wan. Do you want to come with us?" 

Yellow-red eyes felt as if they were trying to drill into his soul, but he didn't flinch or move. For a moment no one moved.

"Okay." 

Obi-Wan followed his dad as he moved forwards to pick them up, looking at the tiny bundle in his arms Obi-Wan felt awe, shock and disbelief. Who would put children in such a dangerous place?

If they hadn't been hunting here, they could have ended up dead, if not worse. But everything was alright now, his dad would make everything better.

"Where are we going?"

Max looked down into yellow-red eyes and smiled.

"Home dear one, we are going home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make the world go around, please leave your thoughts below. Hope you enjoyed it.


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